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tHE  EXPOSITOR'S  BIBLE.    Edited  by  Eer. 

W-  R,  NicoLii,  D.D.,  Editor  of  London  Expos*' yr, 
^                  1  ST  Series  in  6  Vols. 

j»lA€LiABBN,  Rev.  Alex.— COLOSSIANS— PHii.E)dON. 
l>ODS,  Rev.  Marcu*.— GENESIS. 

CHADT^^ICK,  Kev.  Dean.— ST.  MARK.  ^Zi 

BI.A1KJB,  Rev.  W.  G.— SAMUEL,  2  VOLS.  S*! 

EI^ WARDS,  Rev.  T.  C — HEBREWS.  .  o.  g 

2d  Series  in  6  Vols.  ^q-a 

SMITH,  Rev.  G.  A.— ISAIAH,  Vol.1.  • 

AliBXAMDSR,  Bishop.-EPISTLES  OF  ST.  JOHN.  2  g  g 

PI.UMMER,  Rev.  A.— PASTORAL  EPISTLES.  S  £  « 

riNDLAY,  Rev.  G.  G.-GALATIANS.  -I  S-  «= 

MIIililGAN,  Rev.  W.—REVELATION.  5  i3  ® 

DODS,  J^ev*  IHnrcus.— 1st  CORINTHIANS.  i5  >.  c 

3d  Series  IN  6  Vols,     ^  2"°^ 

SMITH,  Rev.  G.  A.— ISAIAH,  Vol.  H.  ®  c 

GIBSON,  Rev.  J.  M.~ST.  MATTHEW.  1  w  a 

WATSON,  Rev.  R.  A.— JUDGES -RUTH.  «  H 

BAI.I.,  Rev.  O.  J.— JEREMIAH.   Chap  I-XX.  fc  S  o 

CHAD  WICK,  Rev.  Dean.— EXODUf  5  _  « 

BURTON,  Rev.  H.— ST.  LUKE.  5^5 

4th  Series  in  6  Vols*  o  o  ~ 

K£LI.OGG,  Rev.  S.  H.— LEVITICUS  •  "S  2 

STOKES,  Rev.  G.  T.— ACTS,  Vol.  I.  «  *•  « 

HORTON,  Rev.  R.  F.— PROVERBS.  i  •  ° 

DODS,  Rev.  Marcus.— GOSPEL  ST.  JOHN,  Vol.  I.  |  - 

PI.UMMER,  Rev.  A.— JAMES-JUDE.  S  -o* 

COX.  Rev.  S.— ECCLESIASTES.  E  "53  £ 

5tk  Series  in  6  Vols.  "I  «•  s 

DENNEY,  Rev.  J.— THESSALONIANS.  >  •?  o. 

WATSON,  Rev.  R.  A.— JOB.  -S  2  • 

I«ACIiAREN,  Rev.  A.-PSALMS,  Vol.  I.  «  O 

STOKES,  Rev.  G.  T.— ACTS,  Vol.  H.  ^  %^ 

DODS,  Rev.  Marcus.— GOSPEL  ST.  JOHN,  VOL.  tl.  .E  1  ' 

rlNDI-AY,  Rev.  O.  G.-EPHESIANS.  «  Z  5 

6th  Series  in  6  Vols.  i  ®  « 

R AINY,  :tolev.  R.-PHILIPPIANS.  o.Ci- 

FARRAR,  Archdeacon  F.  W.— 1st  KINGS  O 

BtAIKIE,  Rev.  W.  G.-JOSHUA.  2  **"  * 

MA  CliAREN,  Rev.  A — PSALMS,  Vol.  II.  *  2 

I.UMBY,  Rev.  J.  B.— EPISTLES  OF  ST.  PETER.  a  ®  5. 
APBNEY,  Rev. W.F.— EZRA— NEHEMIAH-ESTHER.  5  ^  « 

*^                   7th  Series  in  6  Vols.  "* 


MOUIiE,  Rev.  H.  C.G.— ROMANS.  I»  ^ 

FARRAR,  Archdeacon  F.  W.— 2d  KINGS.  fi| 
BENNETT,  Rev.  W.  H.— 1st  and  2d  CHRONICLES. 
MACI-ARBN,  Rev.  A.— PSALMS,  Vol.  IU. 
PENNEY,  Rev.  James.— 2d  CORINTHIANS.  ^ 
W  VTSON.  Rev.  R.  A.— NUMBERS. 

dTH  AND  Final  Series  in  7  Vols. 

FARUAR,  Archdeacon  F.  W.— DANIEL. 

SKINNER,  Rev.  John — EZEKIEL. 

BENNETT,  Rev.  W.  H.— JEREMIAH. 

HARPER,  Rev.  Prof.— DEUTERONOMY. 

ADENEY,  Rev.  W.  F*— SOLOMON  AND  LAMENTATIONfi. 

SniTH,  E&ev.  G.  A.-'THE  MINOR  PROPHETS.  2  Vols. 


THE  BOOK 

Of 

THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 

COMMONLY  CALLED  THE  MINOR 


GEORGE  ADAM  SMITH,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

moFEssoR  or  hebrew  and  old  testament  kxsgmis 

FRXE  CMDRCU  COLLEGE,  GLASGOW 


iN  TWO  VOLUMES 


VOL.  L— AMOS,  ROSEA  AND  MICAH 

l^ITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  AND  A  SKETCH  OF  PROPHEClt 
IN  EARLY  ISRAEL 


NEW  YORK 

A.  C.  ARMSTRONG  AND  SON 
3  and  5  West  Eighteenth  Street 
London:  Hodder  and  Stoughton 
1906 


V 


TO 

HENKV  DRUMMOND 


L 

"  PREFACE 

THE  Prophets,  to  whom  this  and  a  following  volume 
are  dedicated,  have,  to  our  loss,  been  haunted 
for  centuries  by  a  peddling  and  an  ambiguous  title. 
Their  Twelve  Books  are  in  size  smaller  than  those  of 
the  great  Three  which  precede  them,  and  doubtless 
^  none  of  their  chapters  soar  so  high  as  the  brilliant 
'   summits  to  which  we  are  swept  by  Isaiah  and  the 
^   Prophet  of  the  Exile.    But  in  every  other  respect  they 
are  undeserving  of  the  niggardly  name  of  "Minor." 
Two  of  them,  Amos  and  Hosea,  were  the  first  of 

^      all   prophecy — rising  clifF-like,    with   a    sheer  and 

magnificent    originality,    to   a    height  and   a  mass 
_J    sufficient  to  set  after  them  the  trend  and  slope  of  the 
whole  prophetic  range.    The  Twelve  together  cover 
the  extent  of  that  range,  and  illustrate  the  development 
of  prophecy  at  almost  every  stage  from  the  eighth  cen- 
tury to  the  fourth.    Yet  even  more  than  in  the  case  of 
Isaiah  or  Jeremiah,  the  Church  has  been  content  to  use 
^    a  passage  here  and  a  passage  there,  leaving  the  rest 
^    of  the  books  to  absolute  neglect  or  the  almost  equal 
ri    oblivion  of  routine-reading.    Among  the  causes  of  this 
disuse  have  been  the  more  than  usually  corrupt  state 

Yii 


148740 


PREFACE 


of  the  text ;  the  consequent  disorder  and  in  parts 
unintelligibleness  of  all  the  versions ;  the  ignorance 
of  the  various  historical  circumstances  out  of  which 
the  books  arose ;  the  absence  of  successful  efforts  to 
determine  the  periods  and  strophes,  the  dramatic 
dialogues  (with  the  names  of  the  speakers),  the  lyric 
effusions  and  the  passages  of  argument,  of  all  of  which 
the  books  are  composed. 

The  following  exposition  is  an  attempt  to  assist  the 
bettering  of  all  this.  As  the  Twelve  Prophets  illustrate 
among  them  the  whole  history  of  written  prophecy,  I 
have  thought  it  useful  to  prefix  a  historical  sketch  of 
the  Prophet  in  early  Israel,  or  as  far  as  the  appearance 
of  Amos.  The  Twelve  are  then  taken  in  chronological 
order.  Under  each  of  them  a  chapter  is  given  of 
historical  and  critical  introduction  to  his  book;  then 
some  account  of  the  prophet  himself  as  a  man  and 
a  seer;  then  a  complete  translation  of  the  vstfious 
prophecies  handed  down  under  his  name,  with  textual 
footnotes,  and  an  exposition  and  application  to  the 
present  day  in  harmony  with  the  aim  of  the  series  to 
which  these  volumes  belong;  finally,  a  discussion  of 
the  main  doctrines  the  prophet  has  taught,  if  it  has 
not  been  found  possible  to  deal  with  these  in  the  course 
of  the  exposition. 

An  exact  critical  study  of  the  Twelve  Prophets  is 
rendered  necessary  by  the  state  of  the  entire  text. 
The  present  volume  is  based  on  a  thorough  examina- 
tion of  this  in  the  light  of  the  ancient  versions  and  of 


PREFACE 


modern  criticism.  The  emendations  which  I  have 
proposed  are  few  and  insignificant,  but  I  have 
examined  and  discussed  in  footnotes  all  that  have  been 
suggested,  and  in  many  cases  my  translation  will  be 
found  to  differ  widely  from  that  of  the  Revised  Version. 
To  questions  of  integrity  and  authenticity  more  space 
is  devoted  than  may  seem  to  many  to  be  necessary. 
But  it  is  certain  that  the  criticism  of  the  prophetic  books 
has  now  entered  on  a  period  of  the  same  analysis  and 
discrimination  which  is  almost  exhausted  in  the  case  of 
the  Pentateuch.  Some  hints  were  given  of  this  in  a 
previous  volume  on  Isaiah,  chapters  xl. — Ixvi.,  which 
are  evidently  a  composite  work.  Among  the  books  now 
before  us,  the  same  fact  has  long  been  clear  in  the  case 
of  Obadiah  and  Zechariah,  and  also  since  Ewald*s  time 
with  regard  to  Micah.  But  Duhm's  Theology  of  the 
Prophets^  which  appeared  in  1875,  suggested  interpola- 
tions in  Amos.  Wellhausen  (in  1873)  and  Stade  (from 
1883  onwards)  carried  the  discussion  further  both  on 
those,  and  others,  of  the  Twelve ;  while  a  recent  work 
by  Andrde  on  Haggai  proves  that  many  similar 
questions  may  still  be  raised  and  have  to  be  debated. 
The  general  fact  must  be  admitted  that  hardly  one  book 
has  escaped  later  additions — additions  of  an  entirely 
justifiable  nature,  which  supplement  the  point  of  view 
of  a  single  prophet  with  the  richer  experience  or  the 
riper  hopes  of  a  later  day,  and  thus  afford  to  ourselves 
a  more  catholic  presentment  of  the  doctrines  of 
prophecy  and  the  Divine  purposes  for  mankind.  This 
general   fact,   I   say,  must  be  admitted.     But  the 


z 


PREFACE 


questions  of  detail  are  still  in  process  of  solution. 
It  is  obvious  that  settled  results  can  be  reached  (as 
to  some  extent  they  have  been  already  reached  in  the 
criticism  of  the  Pentateuch)  only  after  years  of  re- 
search and  debate  by  all  schools  of  critics.  Meantime 
it  is  the  duty  of  each  of  us  to  offer  his  own  conclusions, 
with  regard  to  every  separate  passage,  on  the  under- 
standing that,  however  final  they  may  at  present  seem 
to  him,  the  end  is  not  yet.  In  previous  criticism 
the  defects,  of  which  work  in  the  same  field  has 
made  me  aware,  are  four :  i.  A  too  rigid  belief  in 
the  exact  parallelism  and  symmetry  of  the  prophetic 
style,  which  I  feel  has  led,  for  instance,  Wellhausen, 
to  whom  we  otherwise  owe  so  much  on  the  Twelve 
Prophets,  into  many  unnecessary  emendations  of  the 
text,  or,  where  some  amendment  is  necessary,  to 
absolutely  unprovable  changes.  2.  In  passages  be- 
tween which  no  connection  exists,  the  forgetfulness 
of  the  principle  that  this  fact  may  often  be  explained 
as  justly  by  the  hypothesis  of  the  omission  of  some 
words,  as  by  the  favourite  theory  of  the  later  intrusion 
of  portions  of  the  extant  text.  3.  Forgetfulness  of  the 
possibility,  which  in  some  cases  amounts  almost  to 
certainty,  of  the  incorporation,  among  the  authentic 
words  of  a  prophet,  of  passages  of  earlier  as  well  as 
of  later  date.  And,  4,  depreciation  of  the  spiritual 
insight  and  foresight  of  pre-exilic  writers.  These,  I 
am  persuaded,  are  defects  in  previous  criticism  of  the 
prophets.  Probably  my  own  criticism  will  reveal  many 
more.    In  the  beginnings  of  such  analysis  as  we  are 


PREFACE 


zi 


engaged  on,  we  must  be  prepared  for  not  a  little 
arbitrariness  and  want  of  proportion  ;  these  are  often 
necessary  for  insight  and  fresh  points  of  view,  but 
they  are  as  easily  eliminated  by  the  progress  of  dis- 
cussion. 

All  criticism  however,  is  preliminary  to  the  real 
work  which  the  immortal  prophets  demand  from 
scholars  and  preachers  in  our  age.  In  a  review 
of  a  previous  volume,  I  was  blamed  for  applying  a 
prophecy  of  Isaiah  to  a  problem  of  our  own  day. 
This  was  called  "  prostituting  prophecy."  The  prosti- 
tution of  the  prophets  is  their  confinement  to  aca- 
demic uses.  One  cannot  conceive  an  ending,  at  once 
more  pathetic  and  more  ridiculous,  to  those  great 
streams  of  living  water,  than  to  allow  them  to  run  out 
in  the  sands  of  criticism  and  exegesis,  however  golden 
these  sands  may  be.  The  prophets  spoke  for  a  practical 
purpose ;  they  aimed  at  the  hearts  of  men ;  and  every- 
thing that  scholarship  can  do  for  their  writings  has 
surely  for  its  final  aim  the  illustration  of  their  witness 
to  the  ways  of  God  with  men,  and  its  application  to 
living  questions  and  duties  and  hopes.  Besides,  there- 
fore, seeking  to  tell  the  story  of  that  wonderful  stage 
in  the  history  of  the  human  spirit — surely  next  in 
wonder  to  the  story  of  Christ  Himself — I  have  not 
feared  at  every  suitable  point  to  apply  its  truths  to 
our  lives  to-day.  The  civilisation  in  which  prophecy 
flourished  was  in  its  essentials  marvellously  like  our 
own.    To  mark  only  one  point,  the  rise  of  prophecy 


xii 


PREFACE 


in  Israel  came  fast  upon  the  passage  of  the  nation  from 
an  agricultural  to  a  commercial  basis  of  society,  and 
upon  the  appearance  of  the  very  thing  which  gives 
its  name  to  civilisation — city-life,  with  its  unchanging 
sins,  problems  and  ideals. 

A  recent  Dutch  critic,  whose  exact  scholarship  is 
known  to  all  readers  of  Stade's  Journal  of  Old  Testa- 
ntent  Science,  has  said  of  Amos  and  Hosea :  "  These 
prophecies  have  a  word  of  God,  as  for  all  times,  so 
also  especially  for  our  own.  Before  all  it  is  relevant 
to  *  the  social  question '  of  our  day,  to  the  relation 
of  religion  and  morality.  .  .  .  Often  it  has  been  hard 
for  me  to  refrain  from  expressly  pointing  out  the 
agreement  between  Then  and  To-day."^  This  feeling 
will  be  shared  by  all  students  of  prophecy  whose 
minds  and  consciences  are  quick;  and  I  welcome  the 
liberal  plan  of  the  series  in  which  this  volume  appears, 
because,  while  giving  room  for  the  adequate  discussion 
of  critical  and  historical  questions,  its  chief  design  is 
to  show  the  eternal  validity  of  the  Books  of  the  Bible 
as  the  Word  of  God,  and  their  meaning  for  ourselves 
to-day. 

Previous  works  on  the  Minor  Prophets  are  almost 
innumerable.  Those  to  which  I  owe  most  will  be 
found  indicated  in  the  footnotes.  The  translation  has 
been  executed  upon  the  purpose,  not  to  sacrifice  the 


1  J.  J.  p.  Valeton,  jun.,  Amos  tn  Hosea^  1894 :  quoted  by  Budde  is 
the  Thtologischi  Uteraiurzeitungt  September,  1894. 


PREFACE 


xiii 


literal  meaning  or  exact  emphasis  of  the  original  to  the 
frequent  possibility  of  greater  elegance.  It  reproduces 
every  word,  with  the  occasional  exception  of  a  copula. 
With  some  hesitation  I  have  retained  the  traditional 
spelling  of  the  Divine  Name,  Jehovah,  instead  of  the 
more  correct  Jahve  or  Yahweh ;  but  where  the  rhythm 
of  certain  familiar  passages  was  disturbed  by  it,  I  have 
followed  the  English  versions  and  written  Lord.  The 
reader  will  keep  in  mind  that  a  line  may  be  destroyed 
by  substituting  our  pronunciation  of  proper  names  for 
the  more  musical  accents  of  the  original.  Thus,  for 
instance,  we  obliterate  the  music  of  Isra'el "  by 
making  it  two  syllables  and  putting  the  accent  on  the 
first :  it  has  three  syllables  with  the  accent  on  the  last. 
We  crush  Yerushalayirn  into  Jerusalem ;  we  shred 
off  AsshQr  into  Assyria,  and  dub  Misraim  Egypt. 
Hebrew  has  too  few  of  the  combinations  which  sound 
most  musical  to  our  ears,  to  afford  the  suppression 
of  any  one  of  them. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL,  I. 

PAGE 

Preface  vii 
Chronological  Table 

INTRODUCTION 

CHAP. 

I.  THE  BOOK  or  THE  TWELVE.         •         •         •         •  3 

II.  THE  PROPHET  IN  EARLY  ISRAEL  .         •         •  .11 
I.  From  the  Earliest  Times  till  Samuel, 
a.  From  Samuel  to  Elisua. 

III.  THE  EIGHTH  CENTURY  IN  ISRAEL         ,         .  •31 

IV.  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  ASSYRIA  UPON  PROPHECY       .  44 

AMOS 

V.  THE  BOOK  OF  AMOS      .         •         •        •        •  .61 

VL  THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET        •         .         •  -73 

I.  The  Man  and  His  Discipline  (i.  I ;  iii.  3-8  ;  vii.  14,  15). 
3,  The  Word  and  its  Origins  (i.  2  ;  iii.  3-8 ;  aiui  passim), 
3.  The  Prophet  and  His  Ministry  (vii. ;  viii.  1-4). 

VII.  ATROCITIES  AND  ATROCITIES  .         •         .         .12  1 

Amos  i.  3 — ii. 

XV 


xvi 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PACK 

VIII.  CIVILISATION  AND  JUDGMENT       •        •         •  141 
Amos  iii. — iv.  3. 

IX.  THE  FALSE  PEACE  OF  RITUAL     •        •         •         .  I56 

Amos  iv.  4 — vi. 

1.  For  Worship,  Chastisement  (iv,  4-13). 

2.  For  Worship,  Justice  (v.). 

3.  "At  Ease  in  Zion  "  (vi.). 

4.  A  Fragment  from  thk  Plague  (vi.  9,  lo)b 

X.  DOOM  OR  DISCIPLINE?         .         .         •         .         .  181 
Amos  viii.  4 — ix. 

1.  Earthquake,  Eclipse  and  Famine  (viii.  4-14). 

2.  Nemesis  (ix.  1-6). 

3.  The  Voices  of  Another  Dawn  (ix.  7-15). 

XL  COMMON-SENSE  AND  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW     .         .  I96 
Amos  iii.  3-8 ;  iv.  6-13;  v.  8,  9 ;  vi.  12 ;  viii.  8 ;  ix.  5,  6. 

ROSEA 

XIL  THE  BOOK  OF  HOSEA  .         .        .        •        •  •211 

XIIL  THE  PROBLEM  THAT  AMOS  LEFT  •         •         •  227 

XIV.  THE  STORY  OF  THE  PRODIGAL  WIFE  •  .232 

Hosea  i. — iiu 

XV.  THE  THICK  NIGHT  OF  ISRAEL     •         •         •         •  «53 
Hosea  iv. — xiv. 

XVI.  A  PEOPLE  IN  decay:    L  MORALLY      •         •         «  *SS 
Hosea  iv. — vii.  7. 

1.  The  Lord's  Quarrel  with  Israel  (iv.). 

2.  Priests  and  Princes  Fail  (v.  1-14). 

3.  Repentance  Fails  (v.  15 — vii.  2). 

4.  Wickedness  in  High  Places  (vii.  3-7). 


CONTENTS  xvii 


CHAP.  PAGB 

XVII.  A  PEOPLE  IN  decay:    II.  POLITICALLY        •        .  269 
Hose  A  vii.  8— x. 

I.  The  Confusion  of  the  Nation  (vii.  8 — viii.  3). 
%,  Artificial  Kings  and  Artificial  Gods  (viii. 
4-13). 

3.  The  Effects  of  Exile  (ix.  1-9). 

4.  "The  Corruption  that  is  through  Lust" 

(ix.  10-17). 

5.  Once  More  :  Puppet-Kings  and  Puppet-Gods 

XVIIL  THE  FATHERHOOD  AND  HUMANITY  OF  GOD       .  290 
HosEA  xi. 

XIX.  THE  FINAL  ARGUMENT     •         •         •        .         •  299 
HosEA  xii.— xiv.  i. 

I.  The  People  and  Their  Father  Jacob  (xii.), 
a.  The  Last  Judgment  (xiii. — xiv.  i). 

XX.  **I  WILL  BE  AS  THE  DEW "       t         t         •         .  308 
Hosea  xiv.  2-IO. 

XXI.  THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  GOD  •  •  •  .  3*^ 
^  Hosea  passim, 

XXIL  REPENTANCE    .        .        «        .        •  ,        •  Z2>2> 

Hosea  passim, 

XXIII.  THE  SIN  AGAINST  LOVE    .         .         •  .         .  346 
Hosea  l— iii. ;  iv.  1 1  flf. ;  ix.  10  flf. ;  xl  8 1 


MICAH 


XXIV.  THE  BOOK  OF  MICAH 
XXV.  MICAH  THE  MORASTHITE  . 
MlCAH  1. 


.  357 

•  37S 


zviii 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAGB 

XXVI.  THE  PROPHET  OF  THE  POOR   •        •        •        •  386 
MiCAM  li.,  iii. 

xxvii.  ON  time's  horizon      •      •      •      •      •  400 

MiCAH  iv.  1-7. 

XXVIII.  THE  KING  TO  COME        •        •        •        •        •  4^^ 
MiCAH  iv.  8— 

XXIX.  THE  REASONABLENESS  OF  TRUE  RELIGION       •  419 
MiCAH  vi.  1-8. 

XXX.  THE  SIN  OF  THE  SCANT  MEASURE  •        •  .4^6 

MicAH  vL  9— vii.  6, 

XXXI.  OUR  MOTHER  OF  SORROMOI      •        •       •        •  435 

MiCAH  viL  7-2a 

Index  or  Passages  and  Texts      •     •      •  439 


CHRONOLOGY   OF  THE  DOUBLE   KINGDOM   OF   ISRAEL.  .  940-^39  B^^- 


only  to  th. 


•  This  date  is  very 


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INTRODUCTION 


Ka2  rCov  tjS'  frpocpTjrwv  tA  dirri 

avadaXoi  iK  rod  rbirov  ai5ru»', 
HapeKaXecav  5^  rbp  *Ia/ct6/3 

Kal  iXvrpuxravTO  avroifs  ev  TriaTei  A7r£3of. 

And  of  the  Twelve  Prophets  may  the  bonet 

Flourish  again  from  iheir  place, 
For  they  comforted  Jacob 

And  redeemed  them  by  the  assurance  of  hope, 

EccLESiASTicus  xlix.  la 


CHAPTER  I 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  TWELVE 

IN  the  order  of  our  English  Bible  the  Minor  Pro- 
phets, as  they  are  usually  called,  form  the  last 
twelve  books  of  the  Old  Testament.  They  are  imme- 
diately preceded  by  Daniel,  and  before  him  by  the  three 
Major  Prophets,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah  (with  Lamentations) 
and  Ezekiel.  Why  all  sixteen  were  thus  gathered 
at  the  end  of  the  other  sacred  books,  we  do  not  know. 
Perhaps,  because  it  was  held  fitting  that  prophecy  should 
occupy  the  last  outposts  of  the  Old  Testament  towards 
the  New. 

In  the  Hebrew  Bible,  however,  the  order  differs,  and 
is  much  more  significant.  The  Prophets^  form  the 
second  division  of  the  threefold  Canon  :  Law,  Prophets 
and  Writings ;  and  Daniel  is  not  among  them.  The 
Minor  follow  immediately  after  Ezekiel.  Moreover, 
they  are  not  twelve  books,  but  one.  They  are 
gathered  under  the  common  title  Book  of  the  Twelve ;  * 
and  although  each  of  them  has  the  usual  colophon 
detailing  the  number  of  its  own  verses,  there  is  also 


*  Including,  of  course,  the  historical  books,  Joshua  to  2  Kings,  which 
were  known  as  "  the  Former  Prophets " ;  while  what  we  call  the 
prophets  Isaiah  to  Malachi  were  known  as  "  the  Latter." 

'  nn  IDD,  the  Aramaic  form  of  the  Hebrew  "l^U  D^'^tJ^,  which 
appears  with  the  other  in  the  colophon  to  tho  book.  A  later  contraction 
i«  "lOnn.    This  is  the  form  transliterated  in  Epiphanius :  dadapiaaoLptk. 

3 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Dne  colophon  for  all  the  twelve,  placed  at  the  end  of 
Malachi  and  reckoning  the  sum  of  their  verses  from 
the  first  of  Hosea  onwards.  This  unity,  which  there 
is  reason  to  suppose  was  given  to  them  before  their 
reception  into  the  Canon,  ^  they  have  never  since 
lost.  However  much  their  place  has  changed  in  the 
order  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  however 
much  their  own  internal  arrangement  has  differed, 
the  Twelve  have  always  stood  together.  There  has 
been  every  temptation  to  scatter  them  because  of  their 
various  dates.  Yet  they  never  have  been  scattered  ;  and 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  have  not  preserved  their 
common  title  in  any  Bible  outside  the  Hebrew,  that  title 
has  lived  on  in  literature  and  common  talk.  Thus  the 
Greek  canon  omits  it ;  but  Greek  Jews  and  Christians 
always  counted  the  books  as  one  volume,'  calling  them 
The  Twelve  Prophets,"  or  The  Twelve-Prophet " 
Book.*  It  was  the  Latins  who  designated  them  "  The 
Minor  Prophets  "  :  on  account  of  their  brevity  as  com- 
pared with  those  who  are  called  the  Major  because  of 
their  ampler  volumes."*  And  this  name  has  passed 
into  most  modern  languages,^  including  our  own.  But 


*  See  Ryle,  Canon  of  the  O.T.^  p.  105. 

*  So  Josephus,  Contra  Apion,  i.  8  (circa  90  a.d.),  reckons  the  pro- 
phetical books  as  thirteen,  of  which  the  Minor  Prophets  could  only 
have  been  counted  as  one — whatever  the  other  twelve  may  have  been. 
Mehto  of  Sardis  (c.  170),  quoted  by  Eusebius  (Htst.  Eccl.,  iv.  26),  speaks 
of  rdy  diodcKa  h  fiovopL^\(^.  To  Origen  (c.  250 :  apud  Ibid.,  vi.  25) 
they  could  only  have  been  one  out  of  the  twenty-two  he  gives  for  the 
O.T.    Cf.  Jerome  {Prolog.  Galeatus)^  **  Liber  duodecim  Prophetarum. 

■  Oi  AibdcKa  Upotp^rai :  Jesus  son  of  Sirach  xlix.  lo ;  T6  BudeKa- 

WpScpTJTOV. 

*  Augustine,  De  Civ.  Dei^  xviii.  29  :  cf.  Jerome,  Proem,  in  Esaiam, 

*  The  German  usage  generally  preserves  the  pumeral,  "  Die  zwOU 
kleinen  Prophet eix," 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  TWELVE 


5 


surely  it  is  better  to  revert  to  the  original,  canonical 
and  unambiguous  title  of    The  Twelve." 

The  collection  and  arrangement  of  The  Twelve  " 
are  matters  of  obscurity,  from  which,  however,  three 
or  four  facts  emerge  that  are  tolerably  certain.  The 
inseparableness  of  the  books  is  a  proof  of  the  ancient 
date  of  their  union.  They  must  have  been  put  together 
before  they  were  received  into  the  Canon.  The  Canon 
of  the  Prophets — Joshua  to  Second  Kings  and  Isaiah 
to  Malachi — was  closed  by  200  3.c.  at  the  latest,  and 
perhaps  as  early  as  250 ;  but  if  we  have  (as  seems 
probable)  portions  of  The  Twelve,"  ^  which  must  be 
assigned  to  a  little  later  than  300,  this  may  be  held 
to  prove  that  the  whole  collection  cannot  have  long 
preceded  the  fixing  of  the  Canon  of  the  Prophets.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  fact  that  these  latest  pieces  have 
not  been  placed  under  a  title  of  their  own,  but  are 
attached  to  the  Book  of  Zechariah,  is  pretty  sufficient 
evidence  that  they  were  added  after  the  collection  and 
fixture  of  twelve  books — a  round  number  which  there 
would  be  every  disposition  not  to  disturb.  That  would 
give  us  for  the  date  of  the  first  edition  (so  to  speak)  of 
our  Twelve  some  year  before  300 ;  and  for  the  date 
of  the  second  edition  some  year  towards  250.  This  is 
a  question,  however,  which  may  be  reserved  for  final 
decision  after  we  have  examined  the  date  of  the  separate 
books,  and  especially  of  Joel  and  the  second  half  of 
Zechariah.  That  there  was  a  previous  collection,  as 
early  as  the  Exile,  of  the  books  written  before  then,  may 
be  regarded  as  more  than  probable.  But  we  have  no 
means  of  fixing  its  exact  limits.  Why  the  Twelve  were 
all  ultimately  put  together  is  reasonably  suggested  by 


'  See  Vol.  II.  on  Zcch.  ix.  fL 


6 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Jewish  writers.  They  are  small,  and,  as  separate  rolls, 
might  have  been  lost.^  It  is  possible  that  the  desire 
of  the  round  number  twelve  is  responsible  for  the 
admission  of  Jonah,  a  book  very  different  in  form 
from  all  the  others;  just  as  we  have  hinted  that  the 
fact  of  there  being  already  twelve  may  account  for  the 
attachment  of  the  late  fragments  to  the  Book  of  Zechariah. 
But  all  this  is  only  to  guess,  where  we  have  no  means 
of  certain  knowledge. 

"  The  Book  of  the  Twelve  "  has  not  always  held  the 
place  which  it  now  occupies  in  the  Hebrew  Canon,  at 
the  end  of  the  Prophets.  The  rabbis  taught  that 
Hosea,  but  for  the  comparative  smallness  of  his  pro- 
phecy, should  have  stood  first  of  all  the  writing  prophets, 
of  whom  they  regarded  him  as  the  oldest.^  And 
doubtless  it  was  for  the  same  chronological  reasons, 
that  early  Christian  catalogues  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
various  editions  of  the  Septuagint,  placed  the  whole  of 
The  Twelve  "  in  front  of  Isaiah.' 

The  internal  arrangement  of  The  Twelve  "  in  our 
English  Bible  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  Hebrew  Canon, 
and  was  probably  determined  by  what  the  compilers 
thought  to  be  the  respective  ages  of  the  books.  Thus, 
first  we  have  six,  all  supposed  to  be  of  the  earlier 
Assyrian  period,  before  700 — Hosea,  Joel,  Amos, 
Obadiah,  Jonah  and  Micah ;  then  three  from  the 
late  Assyrian  and  the  Babylonian  periods — Nahum, 
Habbakuk  and  Zephaniah;  and  then  three  from  the 


*  Talmud :  Baba  Bathra,  14a:  cf.  Rashi's  Commentary. 
'  Talmud,  ibid. 

■  So  the  Codices  Vaticanus  and  Alexandrinus,  but  not  Cod.  Sin.  So 
also  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  (f  386),  Athanasius  (365),  Gregory  Naz.  (f  390), 
and  the  spurious  Canon  of  the  Council  of  Laodicea  (c.  400)  and 
Epiphanius  (403).    See  Ryle,  Canon  of  the  O.T.,  215  ff. 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  TWELVE 


1 


Persian  period  after  the  Exile — Haggai,  Zechariah  and 
Malachi.  The  Septuagint  have  altered  the  order  of 
the  first  six,  arranging  Hosea,  Amos,  Micah,  Joel  and 
Obadiah  according  to  their  size,  and  setting  Jonah  after 
them,  probably  because  of  his  different  form.  The 
remaining  six  are  left  as  in  the  Hebrew. 

Recent  criticism,  however,  has  made  it  clear  that  the 
Biblical  order  of  The  Twelve  Prophets  "  is  no  more 
than  a  very  rough  approximation  to  the  order  of  their 
real  dates  ;  and,  as  it  is  obviously  best  for  us  to  follow 
in  their  historical  succession  prophecies,  which  illustrate 
the  whole  history  of  prophecy  from  its  rise  with  Amos 
to  its  fall  with  Malachi  and  his  successors,  I  propose  to 
do  this.  Detailed  proofs  of  the  separate  dates  must  be 
left  to  each  book.  All  that  is  needful  here  is  a  general 
statement  of  the  order. 

Of  the  first  six  prophets  the  dates  of  Amos,  Hosea, 
and  Micah  (but  of  the  latter's  book  in  part  only)  are 
certain.  The  Jews  have  been  able  to  defend  Hosea's 
priority  only  on  fanciful  grounds.^  Whether  or  not  he 
quotes  from  Amos,  his  historical  allusions  are  more 
recent.  With  the  exception  of  a  few  fragments  incor- 
porated by  later  authors,  the  Book  of  Amos  is  thus  the 
earliest  example  of  prophetic  literature,  and  we  take  it 
first.  The  date  we  shall  see  is  about  755.  Hosea 
begins  five  or  ten  years  later,  and  Micah  just  before  722. 
The  three  are  in  every  respect — originality,  comprehen- 
siveness, influence  upon  other  prophets — the  greatest  of 
our  Twelve,  and  will  therefore  be  treated  with  most 
detail,  occupying  the  whole  of  the  first  volume. 

The  rest  of  the  first  six  are  Obadiah,  Joel  and  Jonah. 


*  By  a  forced  interpretation  of  the  phrase  in  chap.  i.  2,  When  thi 
Lord  spake  at  the  first  by  Hosea  (R.V.),  Talmud:  Baba  Bathra,  14a. 


s 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


But  the  Book  of  Obadiah,  although  it  opens  with  an 
early  oracle  against  Edom,  is  in  its  present  form  from 
after  the  Exile.  The  Book  of  Joel  is  of  uncertain  date, 
but,  as  we  shall  see,  the  great  probability  is  that  it  is 
late;  and  the  Book  of  Jonah  belongs  to  a  form  of 
literature  so  different  from  the  others  that  we  may, 
most  conveniently,  treat  of  it  last. 

This  leaves  us  to  follow  Micah,  at  the  end  of  the 
eighth  century,  with  the  group  Zephaniah,  Nahum  and 
Habakkuk  from  the  second  half  of  the  seventh  century ; 
and  finally  to  take  in  their  order  the  post-exilic  Haggai, 
Zechariah  i. — ix.,  Malachi,  and  the  other  writings  which 
we  feel  obliged  to  place  about  or  even  after  that  date. 

One  other  word  is  needful.  This  assignment  of 
the  various  books  to  different  dates  is  not  to  be  held 
as  implying  that  the  whole  of  a  book  belongs  to  such 
a  date  or  to  the  author  whose  name  it  bears.  We 
shall  find  that  hands  have  been  busy  with  the  texts 
of  the  books  long  after  the  authors  of  these  must  have 
passed  away ;  that  besides  early  fragments  incorporated 
by  later  writers,  prophets  of  Israel's  new  dawn  miti- 
gated the  judgments  and  lightened  the  gloom  of  the 
watchmen  of  her  night;  that  here  and  there  are  passages 
which  are  evidently  intrusions,  both  because  they  in- 
terrupt the  argument  and  because  they  reflect  a  much 
later  historical  environment  than  their  context.  This, 
of  course,  will  require  discussion  in  each  case,  and 
such  discussion  will  be  given.  The  text  will  be  sub- 
jected to  an  independent  examination.  Some  passages 
hitherto  questioned  we  may  find  to  be  unjustly  so; 
others  not  hitherto  questioned  we  may  see  reason  to 
suspect.  But  in  any  case  we  shall  keep  in  mind,  that 
the  results  of  an  independent  inquiry  are  uncertain; 
and  that  in  this  new  criticism  of  the  prophets,  which 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  TWELVE 


9 


is  comparatively  recent,  we  cannot  hope  to  arrive 
for  some  time  at  so  general  a  consensus,  as  is  being 
rapidly  reached  in  the  far  older  and  more  elaborated 
criticism  of  the  Pentateuch.^ 


Such  is  the  extent  and  order  of  the  journey  which 
lies  before  us.  If  it  is  not  to  the  very  summits  of 
Israel's  outlook  that  we  climb — Isaiah,  Jeremiah  and 
the  great  Prophet  of  the  Exile — we  are  yet  to  traverse 
the  range  of  prophecy  from  beginning  to  end.  We 
start  with  its  first  abrupt  elevations  in  Amos.  We  are 
carried  by  the  side  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  yet  at  a 
lower  altitude,  on  to  the  Exile.  With  the  returned 
Israel  we  pursue  an  almost  immediate  rise  to  vision,  and 
then  by  Malachi  and  others  are  conveyed  down  dwind- 
ling slopes  to  the  very  end.  Beyond  the  land  is  flat. 
Though  Psalms  are  sung  and  brave  deeds  done,  and 
faith  is  strong  and  bright,  there  is  no  height  of  outlook ; 
there  is  no  more  any  prophet^  in  Israel. 

But  our  Twelve  "  do  more  than  thus  carry  us  from 
beginning  to  end  of  the  Prophetic  Period.  Of  second 
rank  as  are  most  of  the  heights  of  this  mountain  range, 
they  yet  bring  forth  and  speed  on  their  way  not  a  few 
of  the  streams  of  living  water  which  have  nourished 
later  ages,  and  are  flowing  to-day.  Impetuous  cataracts 
of  righteousness — let  it  roll  on  like  water^  and  justice  as 
an  everlasting  stream ;  the  irrepressible  love  of  God  to 
sinful  men ;  the  perseverance  and  pursuits  of  His 
grace;  His  mercies  that  follow  the  exile  and  the 
outcast ;  His  truth  that  goes  forth  richly  upon  the 


*  For  further  considerations  on  this  point  see  pp.  142,  194,  202  flf., 
223  ff.,  308,  etc.  '  Psalm  Ixxiv.  9. 


10 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


heathen  ;  the  hope  of  the  Saviour  of  mankind ;  the  out- 
pouring of  the  Spirit;  counsels  of  patience;  impulses 
of  tenderness  and  of  healing  ;  melodies  innumerable, — 
all  sprang  from  these  lower  hills  of  prophecy,  and 
sprang  so  strongly  that  the  world  hears  and  feels  them 
still. 

And  from  the  heights  of  our  present  pilgrimage  there 
are  also  clear  those  great  visions  of  the  Stars  and  the 
Dawn,  of  the  Sea  and  the  Storm,  concerning  which  it 
is  true,  that  as  long  as  men  live  they  shall  seek  out  the 
places  whence  they  can  be  seen,  and  thank  God  for 
His  prophetSb 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  PROPHET  IN  EARLY  ISRAEL 
UR  "Twelve  Prophets"  will  carry  us,  as  we  have 


\^  seen,  across  the  whole  extent  of  the  Prophetical 
period — the  period  when  prophecy  became  literature, 
assuming  the  form  and  rising  to  the  intensity  of  an 
imperishable  influence  on  the  world.  The  earliest 
of  the  Twelve,  Amos  and  Hosea,  were  the  inaugu- 
rators  of  this  period.  They  were  not  only  the  first 
(so  far  as  we  know)  to  commit  prophecy  to  writing, 
but  we  find  in  them  the  germs  of  all  its  subse- 
quent development.  Yet  Amos  and  Hosea  were  not 
unfathered.  Behind  them  lay  an  older  dispensation, 
and  their  own  was  partly  a  product  of  this,  and 
partly  a  revolt  against  it.  Amos  says  of  himself :  The 
Lord  hath  spoken^  who  can  but  prophesy  ? — but  again  : 
No  prophet  /,  nor  prophefs  son  !  Who  were  those 
earlier  prophets,  whose  office  Amos  assumed  while 
repudiating  their  spirit — whose  name  he  abjured,  yet 
could  not  escape  from  it?  And,  while  we  are  about 
the  matter,  what  do  we  mean  by    prophet "  in  general  ? 

In  vulgar  use  the  name  prophet "  has  degenerated 
to  the  meaning  of  one  who  foretells  the  future."  Of 
this  meaning  it  is,  perhaps,  the  first  duty  of  every 
student  of  prophecy  earnestly  and  stubbornly  to  rid 
himself    In  its  native  Greek  tongue     prophet"  meant 


II 


12 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


not  "  one  who  speaks  before,"  but  "  one  who  speaks 
for,  or  on  behalf  ^of,  another."  At  the  Delphic 
oracle  "The  Prophetes"  was  the  title  of  the  official, 
who  received  the  utterances  of  the  frenzied  Pythoness 
and  expounded  them  to  the  people ;  ^  but  Plato  says 
that  this  is  a  misuse  of  the  word,  and  that  the  true 
prophet  is  the  inspired  person  himself,  he  who  is  in 
communication  with  the  Deity  and  who  speaks  directly 
for  the  Deity.'  So  Tiresias,  the  seer,  is  called  by 
Pindar  the  prophet "  or  "  interpreter  of  Zeus," '  and 
Plato  even  styles  poets  "  the  prophets  of  the  Muses."  * 
It  is  in  this  sense  that  we  must  think  of  the  "  pro- 
phet" of  the  Old  Testament.  He  is  a  speaker  for 
God.  The  sharer  of  God's  counsels,  as  Amos  calls 
him,  he  becomes  the  bearer  and  preacher  of  God's 
Word.    Prediction  of  the  future  is  only  a  part,  and 


*  Herodotus,  viii.  36,  37. 

•  TimoBuSy  71,  72.  The  whole  passage  is  worth  transcribing: — 
"No  man,  when  in  his  senses,  attains  prophetic  truth  and  inspira- 
tion ;  but  when  he  receives  the  inspired  word  either  his  intelligence 
is  enthralled  by  sleep,  or  he  is  demented  by  some  distemper  or 
possession.  And  he  who  would  understand  what  he  remembers  to 
have  been  said,  whether  in  dream  or  when  he  was  awake,  by  the 
prophetic  and  enthusiastic  nature,  or  what  he  has  seen,  must  recover 
his  senses ;  and  then  he  will  be  able  to  explain  rationally  what  all 
such  words  and  apparitions  mean,  and  what  indications  they  afford, 
to  this  man  or  that,  of  past,  present,  or  future,  good  and  evil.  But, 
while  he  continues  demented,  he  cannot  judge  of  the  visions  which 
he  sees  or  the  words  which  he  utters ;  the  ancient  saying  is  very 
true  that  '  only  a  man  in  his  senses  can  act  or  judge  about  himself 
and  his  own  affairs.*  And  for  this  reason  it  is  customary  to  appoint 
diviners  or  interpreters  as  discerners  of  the  oracles  of  the  gods.  Some 
persons  call  them  prophets;  they  do  not  know  that  they  are  only 
repeaters  of  dark  sayings  and  visions,  and  are  not  to  be  called 
prophets  at  all,  but  only  interpreters  of  prophecy."— Jowett's  Trans- 
lation. 

•  Nik,,  i  91.  *  Phofdrus,  262  D, 


THE  PROPHET  IN  EARLY  ISRAEL 


13 


often  a  subordinate  and  accidental  part,  of  an  office 
whose  full  function  is  to  declare  the  character  and 
the  will  of  God.  But  the  prophet  does  this  in  no 
systematic  or  abstract  form.  He  brings  his  revelation 
point  by  point,  and  in  connection  with  some  occasion 
in  the  history  of  his  people,  or  some  phase  of  their 
character.  He  is  not  a  philosopher  nor  a  theologian  with 
a  system  of  doctrine  (at  least  before  Ezekiel),  but  the 
messenger  and  herald  of  God  at  some  crisis  in  the  life 
or  conduct  of  His  people.  His  message  is  never  out 
of  touch  with  events.  These  form  either  the  subject- 
matter  or  the  proof  or  the  execution  of  every  oracle 
he  utters.  It  is,  therefore,  God  not  merely  as  Truth, 
but  far  more  as  Providence,  whom  the  prophet  reveals. 
And  although  that  Providence  includes  the  full  destiny 
of  Israel  and  mankind,  the  prophet  brings  the  news  of 
it,  for  the  most  part,  piece  by  piece,  with  reference  to 
some  present  sin  or  duty,  or  some  impending  crisis  or 
calamity.  Yet  he  does  all  this,  not  merely  because  the 
word  needed  for  the  day  has  been  committed  to  him 
by  itself,  and  as  if  he  were  only  its  mechanical  vehicle  ; 
but  because  he  has  come  under  the  overwhelming 
conviction  of  God's  presence  and  of  His  character,  a 
conviction  often  so  strong  that  God's  word  breaks 
through  him  and  God  speaks  in  the  first  person  to  the 
people. 


I.  From  the  Earliest  Times  till  Samuel, 

There  was  no  ancient  people  but  believed  in  the 
power  of  certain  personages  to  consult  the  Deity  and 
to  reveal  His  will.  Every  man  could  sacrifice ;  but 
not  every  man  could  render  in  return  the  oracle  of 
God,    This  pertained  to  select  individuals  or  orders. 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


So  the  prophet  seems  to  have  been  an  older  specialist 
than  the  priest,  though  in  every  tribe  ^  he  frequently 
combined  the  latter's  functions  with  his  own.^ 

The  matters  on  which  ancient  man  consulted  God 
were  as  wide  as  life.  But  naturally  at  first,  in  a  rude 
state  of  society  and  at  a  low  stage  of  mental  develop- 
ment, it  was  in  regard  to  the  material  defence  and 
necessities  of  life,  the  bare  law  and  order,  that  men 
almost  exclusively  sought  the  Divine  will.  And  the 
whole  history  of  prophecy  is  just  the  effort  to  substitute 
for  these  elementary  provisions  a  more  personal 
standard  of  the  moral  law,  and  more  spiritual  ideals 
of  the  Divine  Grace. 

By  the  Semitic  race — to  which  we  may  now  confine 
ourselves,  since  Israel  belonged  to  it — Deity  was 
worshipped,  in  the  main,  as  the  god  of  a  tribe.  Every 
Semitic  tribe  had  its  own  god  ;  it  would  appear  that 
there  was  no  god  without  a  tribe :  ^  the  traces  of 
belief  in  a  supreme  and  abstract  Deity  are  few  and 
ineffectual.  The  tribe  was  the  medium  by  which  the 
god  made  himself  known,  and  became  an  effective 
power  on  earth  :  the  god  was  the  patron  of  the  tribe,  the 
supreme  magistrate  and  the  leader  in  war.  The  piety 
he  demanded  was  little  more  than  loyalty  to  ritual ;  the 
morality  he  enforced  was  only  a  matter  of  police.  He 
took  no  cognisance  of  the  character  or  inner  thoughts 
of  the  individual.    But  the  tribe  believed  him  to  stand 


'  It  is  still  a  controversy  whether  the  original  meaning  of  the 
Semitic  root  KHN  is  prophet,  as  in  the  Arabic  KaHiN,  or  priest,  as  in 
the  Hebrew  K6HeN. 

•  Cf.  Jer.  ii.  lo:  For  pass  over  to  the  isles  of  Chittim^  and  see ;  and 
send  unto  Kedar^  and  consider  diligently ;  and  see  if  there  be  such  a 
thing.  Hath  a  nation  changed  their  gods  ?  From  the  isles  of 
Chittim  unto  Kedar — the  limits  of  the  Semitic  world. 


THE  PROPHET  IN  EARLY  ISRAEL 


15 


in  very  close  connection  with  all  the  practical  interests 
of  their  common  life.  They  asked  of  him  the  detection 
of  criminals,  the  discovery  of  lost  property,  the  settle- 
ment of  civil  suits,  sometimes  when  the  crops  should 
be  sown,  and  always  when  war  should  be  waged  and 
by  what  tactics. 

The  means  by  which  the  prophet  consulted  the  Deity 
on  these  subjects  were  for  the  most  part  primitive 
and  rude.  They  may  be  summed  up  under  two  kinds : 
Visions  either  through  falling  into  ecstasy  or  by 
dreaming  in  sleep,  and  Signs  or  Omens.  Both  kinds 
are  instanced  in  Balaam.^  Of  the  signs  some  were 
natural,  like  the  whisper  of  trees,  the  flight  of  birds, 
the  passage  of  clouds,  the  movements  of  stars.  Others 
were  artificial,  like  the  casting  or  drawing  of  lots. 
Others  were  between  these,  like  the  shape  assumed 
by  the  entrails  of  the  sacrificed  animals  when  thrown 
on  the  ground.  Again,  the  prophet  was  often  obliged 
to  do  something  wonderful  in  the  people's  sight,  in 
order  to  convince  them  of  his  authority.  In  Biblical 
language  he  had  to  work  a  miracle  or  give  a  sign. 
One  instance  throws  a  flood  of  light  on  this  habitual 
expectancy  of  the  Semitic  mind.  There  was  once  an 
Arab  chief,  who  wished  to  consult  a  distant  soothsayer 
as  to  the  guilt  of  a  daughter.  But  before  he  would 
trust  the  seer  to  give  him  the  right  answer  to  such 
a  question,  he  made  him  discover  a  grain  of  corn 
which  he  had  concealed  about  his  horse.^  He  required 
the  physical  sign  before  he  would  accept  the  moral 
judgment. 

Now,  to  us  the  crudeness  of  the  means  employed, 

'  Numbers  xxiv.  falling  but  having  his  eyes  open.  Ver.  I,  gnchani' 
ntents  ought  to  be  omens. 

•  Instanced  by  Wellhausen,  Skizs^en  u,  Vorarb.^  No. 


i6  THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


the  opportunities  of  fraud,  the  inadequacy  of  the  tests 
for  spiritual  ends,  are  very  obvious.  But  do  not  let  us, 
therefore,  miss  the  numerous  moral  opportunities  which 
lay  before  the  prophet  even  at  that  early  stage  of  his 
evolution.  He  was  trusted  to  speak  in  the  name  of 
Deity.  Through  him  men  believed  in  God  and  in  the 
possibility  of  a  revelation.  They  sought  from  him  the 
discrimination  of  evil  from  good.  The  highest  possi- 
bilities of  social  ministry  lay  open  to  him :  the  tribal 
existence  often  hung  on  his  word  for  peace  or  war; 
he  was  the  mouth  of  justice,  the  rebuke  of  evil,  the 
champion  of  the  wronged.  Where  such  opportunities 
were  present,  can  we  imagine  the  Spirit  of  God  to  have 
been  absent — the  Spirit  Who  seeks  men  more  than 
they  seek  Him,  and  as  He  condescends  to  use  their  poor 
language  for  religion  must  also  have  stooped  to  the 
picture  language,  to  the  rude  instruments,  symbols 
and  sacraments,  of  their  early  faith  ? 

In  an  office  of  such  mingled  possibilities  everything 
depended — as  we  shall  find  it  depend  to  the  very  end 
of  prophecy — on  the  moral  insight  and  character  of  the 
prophet  himself,  on  his  conception  of  God  and  whether 
he  was  so  true  to  this  as  to  overcome  his  professional 
temptations  to  fraud  and  avarice,  malice  towards 
individuals,  subservience  to  the  powerful,  or,  worst 
snares  of  all,  the  slothfulness  and  insincerity  of  routine. 
We  see  this  moral  issue  put  very  clearly  in  such  a 
story  as  that  of  Balaam,  or  in  such  a  career  as  that  of 
Mohammed. 

So  much  for  the  Semitic  soothsayer  in  general.  Now 
let  us  turn  to  Israel. 
Among   the  Hebrews  the  man  of  God^  to  use 


THE  PROPHET  IN  EARLY  ISRAEL  17 


his  widest  designation,  is  at  first  called  Seerj^  or 
Gazer the  word  which  Balaam  uses  of  himself. 
In  consulting  the  Divine  will  he  employs  the  same 
external  means,  he  offers  the  people  for  their  evidence 
the  same  signs,  as  do  the  seers  or  soothsayers  of  other 
Semitic  tribes.  He  gains  influence  by  the  miracles, 
the  wonderful  things^  which  he  does.^  Moses  himself  is 
represented  after  this  fashion.  He  meets  the  magicians 
of  Egypt  on  their  own  level.  His  use  of  rods\  the 
holding  up  of  his  hands  that  Israel  may  prevail  against 
Amaleq ;  Joshua's  casting  of  lots  to  discover  a  criminal ; 
SamueFs  dream  in  the  sanctuary ;  his  discovery  for  a 
fee  of  the  lost  asses  of  Saul ;  David  and  the  images  in  his 
house,  the  ephod  he  consulted ;  the  sign  to  go  to  battle 
what  time  thou  hearest  the  sound  of  a  going  in  the  tops  of 
the  mulberry  trees  ;  Solomon's  inducement  of  dreams  by 
sleeping  in  the  sanctuary  at  Gibeah, — these  are  a  few  of 
the  many  proofs,  that  early  prophecy  in  Israel  employed 
not  only  the  methods  but  even  much  of  the  furniture  of 
the  kindred  Semitic  religions.  But  then  those  tools 
and  methods  were  at  the  same  time  accompanied  by 
the  noble  opportunities  of  the  prophetic  office  to  which 
I  have  just  alluded- -opportunities  of  religious  and 
social  ministry — and,  still  more,  these  opportunities 
were  at  the  disposal  of  moral  influences  which,  it  is  a 
matter  of  history,  were  not  found  in  any  other  Semitic 
religion  than  Israel's.  However  you  will  explain 
it,  that  Divine  Spirit,  which  we  have  felt  unable  to 
conceive  as  absent  from  any  Semitic  prophet  who 
truly  sought  after  God,  that  Light  which  lighteth 
every  man  who  cometh  into  the  world,  was  present 

'  nxh  ^  nrn 

•  Deut.  xiii.  I  fS.  admits  that  heathen  seers  were  able  to  work  miracles 
and  give  signs,  as  well  as  the  prophets  of  Jehovah. 

VOU  I.  2 


i8 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


to  an  unparalleled  degree  with  the  early  prophets  of 
Israel.  He  came  to  individuals,  and  to  the  nation  as 
a  wnole,  in  events  and  in  influences  which  may  be 
summed  up  as  the  impression  of  the  character  of  their 
national  God,  Jehovah  :  to  use  Biblical  language,  as 
JehovaKs  spirit  and  power.  It  is  true  that  in  many 
ways  the  Jehovah  of  early  Israel  reminds  us  of  other 
Semitic  deities.  Like  some  of  them  He  appears  with 
thunder  and  lightning ;  like  all  of  them  He  is  the  God 
of  one  tribe  who  are  His  peculiar  people.  He  bears 
the  same  titles — Melek,  Adon,  Baal  {King^  Lord^ 
Possessor),  He  is  propitiated  by  the  same  offerings. 
To  choose  one  striking  instance,  captives  and  spoil  of 
war  are  sacrificed  to  Him  with  the  same  relentlessness, 
and  by  a  process  which  has  even  the  same  names  given 
to  it,  as  in  the  votive  inscriptions  of  Israel's  heathen 
neighbours.^  Yet,  notwithstanding  all  these  elemicnts, 
the  religion  of  Jehovah  from  the  very  first  evinced,  by 
the  confession  of  all  critics,  an  ethical  force  shared  by 
no  other  Semitic  creed.  From  the  first  there  was  in  it 
the  promise  and  the  potency  of  that  sublime  monotheism, 
which  in  the  period  of  our  Twelve "  it  afterwards 
reached.^  Its  earliest  effects  of  course  were  chiefly 
political :  it  welded  the  twelve  tribes  into  the  unity  of  a 
nation ;  it  preserved  them  as  one  amid  the  many  tempta- 
tions to  scatter  along  those  divergent  lines  of  culture 
and  of  faith,  which  the  geography  of  their  country 
placed  so  attractively  before  them.'  It  taught  them  to 
prefer  religious  loyalty  to  material  advantage,  and  so 
inspired  them  with  high  motives  for  self-sacrifice  and 

'  Cf.  Mesha*s  account  of  himself  and  Chemosh  on  the  Moabite 
Stone,  with  the  narrative  of  the  taking  of  Ai  in  the  Book  of  Joshua. 

*  Cf.  Kuenen:  Gesammelte  Alhandlungen  (trans,  by  Budde),  p.  461. 

•  So  in  Deborah's  Song. 


THE  PROPHET  IN  EARLY  ISRAEL 


19 


every  other  duty  of  patriotism.  But  it  did  even  better 
than  thus  teach  them  to  bear  one  another's  burdens. 
It  inspired  them  to  care  for  one  another's  sins.  The 
last  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Judges  prove  how  strong 
a  national  conscience  there  was  in  early  Israel.  Even 
then  Israel  was  a  moral,  as  well  as  a  political,  unity. 
Gradually  there  grew  up,  but  still  unwritten,  a  body 
of  Torah,  or  revealed  law,  which,  though  its  frame- 
work was  the  common  custom  of  the  Semitic  race,  was 
inspired  by  ideals  of  humanity  and  justice  not  elsewhere 
in  that  race  discernible  by  us. 

When  we  analyse  this  ethical  distinction  of  early 
Israel,  this  indubitable  progress  which  the  nation  were 
making  while  the  rest  of  their  world  was  morally 
stagnant,  we  find  it  to  be  due  to  their  impressions 
of  the  character  of  their  God.  This  character  did  not 
affect  them  as  Righteousness  only.  At  first  it  was  even  a 
more  wonderful  Grace.  Jehovah  had  chosen  them  when 
they  were  no  people,  had  redeemed  them  from  servitude, 
had  brought  them  to  their  land ;  had  borne  with  their 
stubbornness,  and  had  forgiven  their  infidelities.  Such 
a  Character  was  partly  manifest  in  the  great  events  of 
their  history,  and  partly  communicated  itself  to  their 
finest  personalities — as  the  Spirit  of  God  does  com- 
municate with  the  spirit  of  man  made  in  His  image. 
Those  personalities  were  the  early  prophets  from  Moses 
to  Samuel.  They  inspired  the  nation  to  believe  in  God's 
purposes  for  itself ;  they  rallied  it  to  war  for  the  common 
faith,  and  war  was  then  the  pitch  of  self-sacrifice ; 
they  gave  justice  to  it  in  God's  name,  and  rebuked  its 
sinfulness  without  sparing.  Criticism  has  proved  that 
we  do  not  know  nearly  so  much  about  those  first 
prophets,  as  perhaps  we  thought  we  did.  But  under 
their  God  they  made  Israel.    Out  of  their  work  grew 


20 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


the  monotheism  of  their  successors,  whom  we  are 
now  to  study,  and  later  the  Christianity  of  the  New 
Testament.  For  myself  I  cannot  but  believe,  that  in 
the  influence  of  Jehovah  which  Israel  owned  in  those 
early  times,  there  was  the  authentic  revelation  of  a 
real  Being. 

2.  From  Samuel  to  Elisha. 

Of  the  oldest  order  of  Hebrew  prophecy,  Samuel 
was  the  last  representative.  Till  his  time,  we  are  told, 
the  prophet  in  Israel  was  known  as  the  Seer/  but 
now,  with  other  tempers  and  other  habits,  a  new  order 
appears,  whose  name — and  that  means  to  a  certain 
extent  their  spirit — is  to  displace  the  older  name  and 
the  older  spirit. 

When  Samuel  anointed  Saul  he  bade  him,  for  a  sign 
that  he  was  chosen  of  the  Lord,  go  forth  to  meet  a 
company  of  prophets — Nebi'im,  the  singular  is  Nabi' — 
coming  down  from  the  high  place  or  sanctuary  with 
viols,  drums  and  pipes,  and  prophesying.  There^  he 
added,  the  spirit  of  Jehovah  shall  come  upon  thee^  and 
thou  shalt  prophesy  with  them,  and  shalt  be  turned  into 
another  man.  So  it  happened ;  and  the  people  said  one 
to  another^  What  is  this  that  is  come  to  the  son  of  Kish  ? 
Is  Saul  also  among  the  prophets?^  Another  story, 
probably  from  another  source,  tells  us  that  later,  when 
Saul  sent  troops  of  messengers  to  the  sanctuary  at 
Ramah  to  take  David,  they  saw  the  company  of  prophets 
prophesying  and  Samuel  standing  appointed  over  them^ 

*  I  Sam.  ix.  9. 

■  I  Sam.  X.  1-16,  xi.  I-II,  15.  Chap.  x.  17-27,  xi.  12-14,  belong  to 
other  and  later  documents.  Cf.  Robertson  Smith,  Old  Testameni 
n  the  ewish  Churchy  135  ff* 


THE  PROPHET  IN  EARLY  ISRAEL  fli 


and  the  spirit  of  God  fell  upon  one  after  another  of  the 
troops;  as  upon  Saul  himself  when  he  followed  them 
up.  And  he  stripped  off  his  clothes  also,  and  prophesied 
before  Samuel  in  like  manner,  and  lay  down  naked  all  that 
day  and  all  that  night.  Wherefore  they  say,  Is  Saul  also 
among  the  prophets  ?  * 

All  this  is  very  different  from  the  habits  of  the 
Seer,  who  had  hitherto  represented  prophecy.  He 
was  solitary,  but  these  went  about  in  bands.  They 
were  filled  with  an  infectious  enthusiasm,  by  which 
they  excited  each  other  and  all  sensitive  persons  whom 
they  touched.  They  stirred  up  this  enthusiasm  by 
singing,  playing  upon  instruments,  and  dancing:  its 
results  were  frenzy,  the  tearing  of  their  clothes,  and 
prostration.  The  same  phenomena  have  appeared  in 
every  religion — in  Paganism  often,  and  several  times 
within  Christianity.  They  may  be  watched  to-day 
among  the  dervishes  of  Islam,  who  by  singing  (as 
one  has  seen  them  in  Cairo),  by  swaying  of  their 
bodies,  by  repeating  the  Divine  Name,  and  dwelling 
on  the  love  and  ineffable  power  of  God,  work  them- 
selves into  an  excitement  which  ends  in  prostration 
and  often  in  insensibility.^  The  whole  process  is  due  to 
an  overpowering  sense  of  the  Deity — crude  and  unin- 
telligent if  you  will,  but  sincere  and  authentic — which 
seems  to  haunt  the  early  stages  of  all  religions,  and  to 
linger  to  the  end  with  the  stagnant  and  unprogressive. 
The  appearance  of  this  prophecy  in  Israel  has  given 
rise  to  a  controversy  as  to  whether  it  was  purely  a 


'  I  Sam.  xix.  20-24. 

•  What  seemed  most  to  induce  the  frenzy  of  the  dervishes  whom  I 
watched  was  the  fixing  of  their  attention  upon,  the  yearning  of  their 
minds  after,  the  love  of  God.  **  Ya  habeebil" — "O  my  beloved  I" 
— they  cried. 


22 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


native  product,  or  was  induced  by  infection  from  the 
Canaanite  tribes  around.  Such  questions  are  of  httle 
interest  in  face  of  these  facts  :  that  the  ecstasy  sprang 
up  in  Israel  at  a  time  when  the  spirit  of  the  people  was 
stirred  against  the  Philistines,  and  patriotism  and  religion 
were  equally  excited ;  that  it  is  represented  as  due  to 
the  Spirit  of  Jehovah ;  and  that  the  last  of  the  old  order 
of  Jehovah's  prophets  recognised  its  harmony  with  his 
own  dispensation,  presided  over  it,  and  gave  Israels 
first  king  as  one  of  his  signs,  that  he  should  come  under 
its  power.  These  things  being  so,  it  is  surprising  that  a 
recent  critic^  should  have  seen  in  the  dancing  prophets 
nothing  but  eccentrics  into  whose  company  it  was 
shame  for  so  good  a  man  as  Saul  to  fall.  He  reaches 
this  conclusion  only  by  supposing  that  the  reflexive 
verb  used  for  their  prophesying — hithnabM — had  at  this 
time  that  equivalence  to  mere  madness  to  which  it 
was  reduced  by  the  excesses  of  later  generations  of 
prophets.  With  Samuel  we  feel  that  the  word  had 
no  reproach  :  the  Nebi'im  were  recognised  by  him  as 
standing  in  the  prophetical  succession.  They  sprang 
up  in  sympathy  with  a  national  movement.  The  king 
who  joined  himself  to  them  was  the  same  who  sternly 
banished  from  Israel  all  the  baser  forms  of  soothsaying 
and  traffic  with  the  dead.  But,  indeed,  we  need  no 
other  proof  than  this :  the  name  Nebi'im  so  establishes 
itself  in  the  popular  regard  that  it  displaces  the  older 
names  of  Seer  and  Gazer,  and  becomes  the  classical 
term  for  the  whole  body  of  prophets  from  Moses  to 
Malachi. 


*  Cornill,  in  the  first  of  his  lectures  on  Der  Israelitische  Prophetismus^ 
one  of  the  very  best  popular  studies  of  prophecy,  by  a  master  on  the 
subject.    See  p.  73  «. 


THE  PROPHET  IN  EARLY  ISRAEL  23 


There  was  one  very  remarkable  change  effected  by 
this  new  order  of  prophets,  probably  the  very  greatest 
relief  which  prophecy  experienced  in  the  course  of  its 
evolution.  This  was  separation  from  the  ritual  and 
from  the  implements  of  soothsaying.  Samuel  had  been 
both  priest  and  prophet.  But  after  him  the  names  and 
the  duties  were  specialised,  though  the  specialising  was 
incomplete.  While  the  new  Nebi'im  remained  in  con- 
nection with  the  ancient  centres  of  religion,  they  do  not 
appear  to  have  exercised  any  part  of  the  ritual.  The 
priests,  on  the  other  hand,  did  not  confine  themselves 
to  sacrifice  and  other  forms  of  public  worship,  but 
exercised  many  of  the  so-called  prophetic  functions. 
They  also,  as  Hosea  tells  us,  were  expected  to  give 
T6r6th — revelations  of  the  Divine  will  on  points  of 
conduct  and  order.  There  remained  with  them  the 
ancient  forms  of  oracle — the  Ephod,  or  plated  image, 
the  Teraphim,  the  lot,  and  the  Urim  and  Thummim,* 
all  of  these  apparently  still  regarded  as  indispensable 
elements  of  religion.^  From  such  rude  forms  of  ascer- 
taining the  Divine  Will,  prophecy  in  its  new  order  was 
absolutely  free.  And  it  was  free  of  the  ritual  of  the 
sanctuaries.  As  has  been  justly  remarked,  the  ritual  of 
Israel  always  remained  a  peril  to  the  people,  the  peril 
of  relapsing  into  Paganism.  Not  only  did  it  materialise 
faith  and  engross  affections  in  the  worshipper  which 
were  meant  for  moral  objects,  but  very  many  of  its 

*  It  is  now  past  doubt  that  these  were  two  sacred  stones  used  for 
decision  in  the  case  of  an  alternative  issue.  This  is  plain  from  the 
amended  reading  of  Saul's  prayer  in  I  Sara.  xiv.  41,  42  (after  the 
LXX.)  :  O  Jehovah  God  of  Israel^  wherefore  hast  Thou  not  answered  Thy 
servant  this  day  ?  If  the  iniquity  be  in  me  or  in  Jonathan  my  son^  O 
Jehovah  God  of  Israel ,  give  Urim  :  and  if  it  be  in  Thy  people  Israel^  si^U 
I  pray  Thee^  Thummim. 

■  Hosca  iii  4.    See  next  chapter,  p.  38. 


24 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


forms  were  actually  the  same  as  those  of  the  other 
Semitic  religions,  and  it  tempted  its  devotees  to  the 
confusion  of  their  God  with  the  gods  of  the  heathen. 
Prophecy  was  now  wholly  independent  of  it,  and  we 
may  see  in  such  independence  the  possibility  of  all  the 
subsequent  career  of  prophecy  along  moral  and  spiritual 
lines.  Amos  absolutely  condemns  the  ritual,  and  Hosea 
brings  the  message  from  God,  /  will  have  mercy  and  not 
sacrifice.  This  is  the  distinctive  glory  of  prophecy  in 
that  era  in  which  we  are  to  study  it.  But  do  not  let 
us  forget  that  it  became  possible  through  the  ecstatic 
Nebi^im  of  SamueVs  time,  and  through  their  separation 
from  the  national  ritual  and  the  material  forms  of 
soothsaying.  It  is  the  way  of  Providence  to  prepare 
for  the  revelation  of  great  moral  truths,  by  the  en- 
franchisement, sometimes  centuries  before,  of  an  order 
or  a  nation  of  men  from  political  or  professional 
interests  which  would  have  rendered  it  impossible  for 
their  descendants  to  appreciate  those  truths  without 
prejudice  or  compromise. 

We  may  conceive  then  of  these  Nebi'im,  these 
prophets,  as  enthusiasts  for  Jehovah  and  for  Israel. 
For  Jehovah — if  to-day  we  see  men  cast  by  the  adora- 
tion of  the  despot-deity  of  Islam  into  transports  so 
excessive  that  they  lose  all  consciousness  of  earthly 
things  and  fall  into  a  trance,  can  we  not  imagine  a  like 
effect  produced  on  the  same  sensitive  natures  of  the 
East  by  the  contemplation  of  such  a  God  as  Jehovah, 
so  mighty  in  earth  and  heaven,  so  faithful  to  His  people, 
$0  full  of  grace  ?  Was  not  such  an  ecstasy  of  worship 
most  likely  to  be  born  of  the  individuaFs  ardent  devotion 
in  the  hour  of  the  nation's  despair  ?  ^  Of  course  there 
would  be  swept  up  by  such  a  movement  all  the  more 


'  Cf.  Deut.  xxviii.  34. 


THE  PROPHET  IN  EARLY  ISRAEL  35 


volatile  and  unbalanced  minds  of  the  day — as  these 
always  have  been  swept  up  by  any  powerful  religious 
excitement — but  that  is  not  to  discredit  the  sincerity 
of  the  main  volume  of  the  feeling  nor  its  authenticity 
as  a  work  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  as  the  impression  of 
the  character  and  power  of  Jehovah. 

But  these  ecstatics  were  also  enthusiasts  for  Israel ; 
and  this  saved  the  movement  from  morbidness.  They 
worshipped  God  neither  out  of  sheer  physical  sym- 
pathy with  nature,  like  the  Phoenician  devotees  of 
Adonis  or  the  Greek  Bacchantes ;  nor  out  of  terror 
at  the  approaching  end  of  all  things,  like  some  of 
the  ecstatic  sects  of  the  Middle  Ages;  nor  out  of  a 
selfish  passion  for  their  own  salvation,  like  so  many 
a  modern  Christian  fanatic ;  but  in  sympathy  with  their 
nation's  aspirations  for  freedom  and  her  whole  political 
life.  They  were  enthusiasts  for  their  people.  The 
ecstatic  prophet  was  not  confined  to  his  body  nor  to 
nature  for  the  impulses  of  Deity.  Israel  was  his  body, 
*iis  atmosphere,  his  universe.  Through  it  all  he  felt 
iie  thrill  of  Deity.  Confine  religion  to  the  personal, 
it  grows  rancid,  morbid.  Wed  it  to  patriotism,  it  lives 
in  the  open  air  and  its  blood  is  pure.  So  in  days  of 
national  danger  the  Nebi'im  would  be  inspired  like 
Saul  to  battle  for  their  country's  freedom;  in  more 
settled  times  they  would  be  lifted  to  the  responsibilities 
of  educating  the  people,  counselling  the  governors,  and 
preserving  the  national  traditions.  This  is  what  actually 
took  place.  After  the  critical  period  of  Saul's  time  has 
passed,  the  prophets  still  remain  enthusiasts ;  but  they 
are  enthusiasts  for  affairs.  They  counsel  and  they 
rebuke  David.^  They  warn  Rehoboam,  and  they  excite 
Northern  Israel  to  revolt.^  They  overthrow  and  they 
'  2  Sam.  xii.  iff.  '  I  Kings  xi.  29 ;  xii.  22. 


26 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


set  up  dynasties.^  They  ofTer  the  king  advice  on  cam- 
paigns.^ Like  Elijah,  they  take  up  against  the  throne 
the  cause  of  the  oppressed  ; '  Hke  Elisha,  they  stand  by 
the  throne  its  most  trusted  counsellors  in  peace  and  war.* 
That  all  this  is  no  new  order  of  prophecy  in  Israel, 
but  the  developed  form  of  the  ecstasy  of  Samuel's 
day,  is  plain  from  the  continuance  of  the  name  Nebi'im 
and  from  these  two  facts  besides  :  that  the  ecstasy  sur- 
vives and  that  the  prophets  still  live  in  communities. 
The  greatest  figures  of  the  period,  Elijah  and  Elisha, 
have  upon  them  the  hand  of  the  Lord,  as  the  influence 
is  now  called :  Elijah  when  he  runs  before  Ahab's 
chariot  across  Esdraelon,  Elisha  when  by  music  he 
induces  upon  himself  the  prophetic  mood.*  Another 
ecstatic  figure  is  the  prophet  who  was  sent  to  anoint 
Jehu ;  he  swept  in  and  he  swept  out  again,  and  the 
soldiers  called  him  that  mad  fellow,^  But  the  roving 
bands  had  settled  down  into  more  or  less  stationary 
communities,  who  partly  lived  by  agriculture  and  partly 
by  the  alms  of  the  people  or  the  endowments  of  the 
crown.''  Their  centres  were  either  the  centres  of  national 
worship,  like  Bethel  and  Gilgal,  or  the  centres  of  govern- 
ment, like  Samaria,  where  the  dynasty  of  Omri  sup- 
ported prophets  both  of  Baal  and  of  Jehovah.^  They 
were  called  prophets,  but  also  sons  of  the  prophets^  the 
latter  name  not  because  their  office  was  hereditary,  but 


'  I  Kings  xiv.  2,  7-1 1  ;  xix.  15  f,;  2  Kings  ix.  3 

*  I  Kings  xxii.  5  ff.;  2  Kings  iii.  II  ff. 
■  I  Kings  xxi.  I  flf. 

*  2  Kings  vi. — viii.,  etc. 

•  I  Kings  xviii.  46;  2  Kings  iii.  15. 

•  2  Kings  ix.  II.    Mad  fellow^  not  necessarily  a  term  of  reproach. 

*  I  Kings  xviii.  4,  cf.  19;  2  Kings  ii.  3,  5;  iv.  38-44;  v.  20flf. ;  vi 
I  flf. ;  viii.  8  f.,  etc. 

•  I  Kings  xviii.  19 ;  xxii.  6. 


THE  PROPHET  IN  EARLY  ISRAEL 


n 


by  the  Oriental  fashion  of  designating  every  member 
of  a  guild  as  the  son  of  the  guild.  In  many  cases 
the  son  may  have  succeeded  his  father ;  but  the  ranks 
could  be  recruited  from  outside,  as  we  see  in  the  case 
of  the  young  farmer  Elisha,  whom  Elijah  anointed  at 
the  plough.  They  probably  all  wore  the  mantle  which 
is  distinctive  of  some  of  them,  the  mantle  of  hair,  or 
skin  of  a  beast.^ 

The  risks  of  degeneration,  to  which  this  order  of 
prophecy  was  liable,  arose  both  from  its  ecstatic  temper 
and  from  its  connection  with  public  affairs. 

Religious  ecstasy  is  always  dangerous  to  the  moral 
and  intellectual  interests  of  religion.  The  largest 
prophetic  figures  of  the  period,  though  they  feel  the 
ecstasy,  attain  their  greatness  by  rising  superior  to  it. 
Elijah's  raptures  are  impressive ;  but  nobler  are  his 
defence  of  Naboth  and  his  denunciation  of  Ahab.  And 
so  Elisha's  inducement  of  the  prophetic  mood  by  music 
is  the  least  attractive  element  in  his  career :  his  great- 
ness lies  in  his  combination  of  the  care  of  souls 
with  political  insight  and  vigilance  for  the  national 
interests.  Doubtless  there  were  many  of  the  sons  of 
the  prophets  who  with  smaller  abilities  cultivated  a 
religion  as  rational  and  moral.  But  for  the  herd 
ecstasy  would  be  everything.  It  was  so  easily  induced 
or  imitated  that  much  of  it  cannot  have  been  genuine. 
Even  where  the  feehng  was  at  first  sincere  we  can 
understand  how  readily  it  became  morbid ;  how  fatally 
it  might  fall  into  sympathy  with  that  drunkenness  from 
wine  and  that  sexual  passion  which  Israel  saw  already 
cultivated  as  worship  by  the  surrounding  Canaanites. 
We  must  feel  these  dangers  of  ecstasy  if  we  would 


'  So  Elijah,  2  Kings  I  8  :  cf.  John  the  Baptist,  Matt.  Hi.  4. 


28 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


understand  why  Amos  cut  himself  off  from  the  Nebi'im, 
and  why  Hosea  laid  such  emphasis  on  the  moral  and 
intellectual  sides  of  religion  :  My  people  perish  for  lack 
of  knowledge.  Hosea  indeed  considered  the  degeneracy 
of  ecstasy  as  a  judgment :  the  prophet  is  a  fool^  the  man 
of  the  spirit  is  mad— for  the  multitude  of  thine  iniquity} 
A  later  age  derided  the  ecstatics,  and  took  one  of  the 
forms  of  the  verb  to  prophesy  as  equivalent  to  the  verb 
to  be  mad} 

But  temptations  as  gross  beset  the  prophet  from  that 
which  should  have  been  the  discipline  of  his  ecstasy — 
his  connection  with  public  affairs.  Only  some  prophets 
were  brave  rebukers  of  the  king  and  the  people.  The 
herd  which  fed  at  the  royal  table — four  hundred  under 
Ahab — were  flatterers,  who  could  not  tell  the  truth, 
who  said  Peace,  peace,  when  there  was  no  peace.  These 
were  false  prophets.  Yet  it  is  curious  that  the  very 
early  narrative  which  describes  them'  does  not  impute 
their  falsehood  to  any  base  motives  ot  their  own,  but 
to  the  direct  inspiration  of  God,  who  sent  forth  a  lying 
spirit  upon  them.  So  great  was  the  reverence  still  for 
the  man  of  the  spirit  I  Rather  than  doubt  his  inspira- 
tion, they  held  his  very  lies  to  be  inspired.  One  does 
not  of  course  mean  that  these  consenting  prophets  were 
conscious  liars ;  but  that  their  dependence  on  the  king, 
their  servile  habits  of  speech,  disabled  them  from  seeing 
the  truth.  Subserviency  to  the  powerful  was  their 
great  temptation.  In  the  story  of  Balaam  we  see 
confessed  the  base  instinct  that  he  who  paid  the  pro- 


•  Hosea  ix.  7. 

•  Jer.  xxix.  26  :  Evety  man  that  is  mad,  and  worketh  himself  into 
prophecy  (XIliH^D,  the  same  form  as  is  used  without  moral  reproach 
in  I  Sam.  x.  10  tT.). 

•  1  Kings  xxii. 


THE  PROPHET  IN  EARLY  ISRAEL  29 


phet  should  have  the  word  of  the  prophet  in  his  favour. 
In  Israel  prophecy  went  through  exactly  the  same 
struggle  between  the  claims  of  its  God  and  the  claims 
of  its  patrons.  Nor  were  those  patrons  always  the 
rich.  The  bulk  of  the  prophets  were  dependent  on  the 
charitable  gifts  of  the  common  people,  and  in  this  we 
may  find  reason  for  that  subjection  of  so  many  of 
them  to  the  vulgar  ideals  of  the  national  destiny,  to  signs 
of  which  we  are  pointed  by  Amos.  The  priest  at  Bethel 
only  reflects  public  opinion  when  he  takes  for  granted 
that  the  prophet  is  a  thoroughly  mercenary  character: 
Seer  J  get  thee  gone  to  the  land  of  Judah;  eat  there  thy 
bready  and  play  the  prophet  there  No  wonder  Amos 
separates  himself  from  such  hireling  craftsmen  1 

Such  was  the  course  of  prophecy  up  to  Elisha,  and 
the  borders  of  the  eighth  century.  We  have  seen  how 
even  for  the  ancient  prophet,  mere  soothsayer  though 
we  might  regard  him  in  respect  of  the  rude  instruments 
of  his  office,  there  were  present  moral  opportunities 
of  the  highest  kind,  from  which,  if  he  only  proved  true 
to  them,  we  cannot  conceive  the  Spirit  of  God  to  have 
been  absent.  In  early  Israel  we  are  sure  that  the  Spirit 
did  meet  such  strong  and  pure  characters,  from  Moses 
to  Samuel,  creating  by  their  means  the  nation  of  Israel, 
welding  it  to  a  unity,  which  was  not  only  political  but 
moral — and  moral  to  a  degree  not  elsewhere  realised 
in  the  Semitic  world.  We  saw  how  a  new  race  of 
prophets  arose  under  Samuel,  separate  from  the  older 
forms  of  prophecy  by  lot  and  oracle,  separate,  too,  from 
the  ritual  as  a  whole ;  and  therefore  free  for  a  moral 


^  Amos  vii.  12. 


30 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


and  spiritual  advance  of  which  the  priesthood,  still 
bound  to  images  and  the  ancient  rites,  proved  them- 
selves incapable.  But  this  new  order  of  prophecy, 
besides  its  moral  opportunities,  had  also  its  moral 
perils :  its  ecstasy  was  dangerous,  its  connection  with 
public  affairs  was  dangerous  too.  Again,  the  test  was 
the  personal  character  of  the  prophet  himself.  And 
so  once  more  we  see  raised  above  the  herd  great 
personalities,  who  carry  forward  the  work  of  their 
predecessors.  The  results  are,  besides  the  discipline 
of  the  monarchy  and  the  defence  of  justice  and  the 
poor,  the  firm  establishment  of  Jehovah  as  the  one 
and  only  God  of  Israel,  and  the  impression  on  Israel 
both  of  His  omnipotent  guidance  of  them  in  the  past, 
and  of  a  worldwide  destiny,  still  vague  but  brilliant, 
which  He  had  prepared  for  them  in  the  future. 

This  brings  us  to  Elisha,  and  from  Elisha  there  are 
but  forty  years  to  Amos.  During  those  forty  years, 
however,  there  arose  within  Israel  a  new  civilisation ; 
beyond  her  there  opened  up  a  new  world ;  and  with 
Assyria  there  entered  the  resources  of  Providence,  a 
new  power.  It  was  these  three  facts — the  New 
Civilisation,  the  New  World  and  the  New  Power — 
which  made  the  difference  between  Elisha  and  Amos, 
and  raised  prophecy  from  a  national  to  a  universal 
religion. 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  EIGHTH  CENTURY  IN  ISRAEL 

THE  long  life  of  Elisha  fell  to  its  rest  on  the 
margin  of  the  eighth  century.*  He  had  seen 
much  evil  upon  Israel.  The  people  were  smitten  in 
all  their  coasts.  None  of  their  territory  across  Jordan 
was  left  to  them ;  and  not  only  Hazael  and  his  Syrians, 
but  bands  of  their  own  former  subjects,  the  Moabites, 
periodically  raided  Western  Palestine,  up  to  the  very 
gates  of  Samaria.*  Such  a  state  of  affairs  determined 
the  activity  of  the  last  of  the  older  prophets.  EHsha 
spent  his  life  in  the  duties  of  the  national  defence,  and 
in  keeping  alive  the  spirit  of  Israel  against  her  foes. 
When  he  died  they  called  him  Israel's  chariot  and  the 
horsemen  thereof £o  incessant  had  been  both  his 
military  vigilance*  and  his  political  insight.*  But 
Elisha  was  able  to  leave  behind  him  the  promise  of 
a  new  day  of  victory.*  It  was  in  the  peace  and  liberty 
of  this  day  that  Israel  rose  a  step  in  civilisation  ;  that 
prophecy,  released  from  the  defence,  became  the  criti- 
cism, of  the  national  life ;  and  that  the  people,  no 
longer  absorbed  in  their  own  borders,  looked  out,  and 


■  He  died  in  798  or  797. 

■  2  Kings  X.  32,  xiii.  20,  22. 
*  a  Kings  xiii.  14. 


3« 


*  vi.  12  ff.,  etc, 

*  viii.,  etc. 

*  xiii.  17  ft 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


for  the  first  time  realised  the  great  world,  of  which 
they  were  only  a  part. 

King  Joash,  whose  arms  the  dying  Elisha  had  blessed, 
won  back  in  the  sixteen  years  of  his  reign  (798 — 783) 
the  cities  which  the  Syrians  had  taken  from  his  father.^ 
His  successor,  Jeroboam  II.,  came  in,  therefore,  with 
a  flowing  tide.  He  was  a  strong  man,  and  he  took 
advantage  of  it.  During  his  long  reign  of  about  forty 
years  (783 — 743)  he  restored  the  border  of  Israel  from 
the  Pass  of  Hamath  between  the  Lebanons  to  the 
Dead  Sea,  and  occupied  at  least  part  of  the  territory 
of  Damascus.^  This  means  that  the  constant  raids  to 
which  Israel  had  been  subjected  now  ceased,  and  that 
by  the  time  of  Amos,  about  755,  a  generation  was 
grown  up  who  had  not  known  defeat,  and  the  most 
of  whom  had  perhaps  no  experience  even  of  war. 

Along  the  same  length  of  years  Uzziah  {circa 
778 — 740)  had  dealt  similarly  with  Judah.^  He  had 
pushed  south  to  the  Red  Sea,  while  Jeroboam  pushed 
north  to  Hamath;  and  while  Jeroboam  had  taken  the 
Syrian  towns  he  had  crushed  the  Philistine.  He  had 
reorganised  the  army,  and  invented  new  engines  of 
siege  for  casting  stones.  On  such  of  his  frontiers  as 
were  opposed  to  the  desert  he  had  built  towers  :  there 
is  no  better  means  of  keeping  the  nomads  in  subjection. 

All  this  meant  such  security  across  broad  Israel 
as  had  not  been  known  since  the  glorious  days  of 
Solomon.  Agriculture  must  everywhere  have  revived  : 
Uzziah,  the  Chronicler  tells  us,  loved  husbandry.  But 
we  hear  most  of  Trade  and  Building.  With  quarters 
in  Damascus  and  a  port  on  the  Red  Sea,  with  allies 


*  a  Kings  xiii.  2^2$.  *  xiv.  28,  if  not  Damascus  itseUl 

J  Kings  XV. :  cf.  2  Chron.  xxvi. 


THE  EIGHTH  CENTURY  IN  ISRAEL  33 


in  the  Phoenician  towns  and  tributaries  in  the  Philistine, 
with  command  of  all  the  main  routes  between  Egypt 
and  the  North  as  between  the  Desert  and  the  Levant, 
Israel,  during  those  forty  years  of  Jeroboam  and  Uzziah, 
must  have  become  a  busy  and  a  wealthy  commercial 
power.  Hosea  calls  the  Northern  Kingdom  a  very 
Canaan  ^ — Canaanite  being  the  Hebrew  term  for  trader 
— as  we  should  say  a  very  Jew ;  and  Amos  exposes 
all  the  restlessness,  the  greed,  and  the  indifference  to 
the  poor  of  a  community  making  haste  to  be  rich. 
The  first  effect  of  this  was  a  large  increase  of  the 
towns  and  of  town-life.  Every  document  of  the  time — 
up  to  720 — speaks  to  us  of  its  buildings.^  In  ordinary 
building  houses  of  ashlar  seem  to  be  novel  enough 
to  be  mentioned.  Vast  palaces — the  name  of  them  first 
heard  of  in  Israel  under  Omri  and  his  Phoenician  alliance, 
and  then  only  as  that  of  the  king^s  citadeP — are  now  built 
by  wealthy  grandees  out  of  money  extorted  from  the 
poor ;  they  can  have  risen  only  since  the  Syrian  wars. 
There  are  summer  houses  in  addition  to  winter  houses ; 
and  it  is  not  only  the  king,  as  in  the  days  of  Ahab, 
who  furnishes  his  buildings  with  ivory.  When  an 
earthquake  comes  and  whole  cities  are  overthrown,  the 
vigour  and  wealth  of  the  people  are  such  that  they 
build  more  strongly  and  lavishly  than  before.*  With 
all  this  we  have  the  characteristic  tempers  and  moods 

*  xii.  7  (Heb.  ver.  8).  Trans.,  As  for  Canaan^  the  balances,  etc, 
'  KmoSf  passim.  Hosea  viii.  14,  etc.;  Micah  iii.  12  ;  Isa.  ix.  10. 

•  PO'IN,  a  word  not  found  in  the  Pentateuch,  Joshua,  Judges, 
or  Samuel,  is  used  in  I  Kings  xvi.  18,  2  Kings  xv.  25,  for  a  citadel 
within  the  palace  of  the  king.  Similarly  in  Isa.  xxv.  2  ;  Pro.  xviii 
19.  But  in  Amos  generally  of  any  large  or  grand  house.  That 
the  name  first  appears  in  the  time  of  Omri's  alliance  with  Tyre, 
points  to  a  Phoenician  origin.    Probably  from  root  D'^X,  to  be  high. 

Isa.  iz.  10. 

VOL.  I.  3 


34 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


of  city-life :  the  fickleness  and  liability  to  panic  which 
are  possible  only  where  men  are  gathered  in  crowds ; 
the  luxury  and  false  art  which  are  engendered  only  by 
artificial  conditions  of  life ;  the  deep  poverty  which 
in  all  cities,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  time, 
lurks  by  the  side  of  the  most  brilliant  wealth,  its  dark 
and  inevitable  shadow. 

In  short,  in  the  half-century  between  Elisha  and 
Amos,  Israel  rose  from  one  to  another  of  the  great  stages 
of  culture.  Till  the  eighth  century  they  had  been  but 
a  kingdom  of  fighting  husbandmen.  Under  Jeroboam 
and  Uzziah  city-Hfe  was  developed,  and  civilisation,  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  word,  appeared.  Only  once  before 
had  Israel  taken  so  large  a  step :  when  they  crossed 
Jordan,  leaving  the  nomadic  life  for  the  agricultural ;  and 
that  had  been  momentous  for  their  religion.  They 
came  among  new  temptations :  the  use  of  wine,  and  the 
shrines  of  local  gods  who  were  believed  to  have  more 
influence  on  the  fertility  of  the  land  than  Jehovah  who 
had  conquered  it  for  His  people.  But  now  this  further 
step,  from  the  agricultural  stage  to  the  mercantile  and 
civil,  was  equally  fraught  with  danger.  There  was  the 
closer  intercourse  with  foreign  nations  and  their  cults. 
There  were  all  the  temptations  of  rapid  wealth,  all 
the  dangers  of  an  equally  increasing  poverty.  The 
growth  of  comfort  among  the  rulers  meant  the  growth 
of  thoughtlessness.  Cruelty  multiplied  with  refinement. 
The  upper  classes  were  Hfted  away  from  feeUng  the 
real  woes  of  the  people.  There  was  a  well-fed  and 
sanguine  patriotism,  but  at  the  expense  of  indifference 
to  social  sin  and  want.  Religious  zeal  and  liberality 
increased,  but  they  were  coupled  with  all  the  proud's 
misunderstanding  -of  God :  an  optimist  faith  without 
moral  insight  or  sympathy. 


THE  EIGHTH  CENTURY  IN  ISRAEL 


35 


It  is  all  this  which  makes  the  prophets  of  the  eighth 
century  so  modern,  while  Elisha^s  life  is  still  so  ancient. 
With  him  we  are  back  in  the  times  of  our  own  border 
wars — of  Wallace  and  Bruce,  with  their  struggles  for 
the  freedom  of  the  soil.  With  Amos  we  stand  among 
the  conditions  of  our  own  day.  The  City  has  arisen. 
For  the  development  of  the  highest  form  of  prophecy, 
the  universal  and  permanent  form,  there  was  needed 
that  marvellously  unchanging  mould  of  human  life, 
whose  needs  and  sorrows,  whose  sins  and  problems, 
are  to-day  the  same  as  they  were  all  those  thousands 
of  years  ago. 

With  Civilisation  came  Literature.  The  long  peace 
gave  leisure  for  writing;  and  the  just  pride  of  the 
people  in  boundaries  broad  as  Solomon^s  own,  deter- 
mined that  this  writing  should  take  the  form  of 
heroic  history.  In  the  parallel  reigns  of  Jeroboam  and 
Uzziah  many  critics  have  placed  the  great  epics  of 
Israel :  the  earlier  documents  of  our  Pentateuch  which 
trace  God^s  purposes  to  mankind  by  Israel,  from  the 
creation  of  the  world  to  the  settlement  of  the  Promised 
Land;  the  histories  which  make  up  our  Books  of 
Judges,  Samuel  and  Kings.  But  whether  all  these 
were  composed  now  or  at  an  earlier  date,  it  is  certain 
that  the  nation  lived  in  the  spirit  of  them,  proud  of 
its  past,  aware  of  its  vocation,  and  confident  that  its 
God,  who  had  created  the  world  and  so  mightily  led 
itself,  would  bring  it  from  victory  by  victory  to  a 
complete  triumph  over  the  heathen.  Israel  of  the 
eighth  century  were  devoted  to  Jehovah ;  and  although 
passion  or  self-interest  might  lead  individuals  or  even 
communities  to  worship  other  gods.  He  had  no  possible 
rival  upon  the  throne  of  the  nation. 

As  they  delighted  to  recount  His  deeds  by  their 


36 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


fathers,  so  they  thronged  the  scenes  of  these  with  sacrifice 
and  festival.  Bethel  and  Beersheba,  Dan  and  Gllgal, 
were  the  principal ;  ^  but  Mizpeh,  the  top  of  Tabor,^  and 
Carmel,^  perhaps  Penuel,*  were  also  conspicuous  among 
the  countless  high  places'^  of  the  land.  Of  those  in 
Northern  Israel  Bethel  was  the  chief.  It  enjoyed  the 
proper  site  for  an  ancient  shrine,  which  was  nearly 
always  a  market  as  well — near  a  frontier  and  where 
many  roads  converged;  where  traders  from  the  East 
could  meet  half-way  with  traders  from  the  West,  the 
wool-growers  of  Moab  and  the  Judaean  desert  with 
the  merchants  of  Phoenicia  and  the  Philistine  coast. 
Here,  on  the  spot  on  which  the  father  of  the  nation  had 
seen  heaven  open,®  a  great  temple  was  now  built,  with 
a  priesthood  endowed  and  directed  by  the  crown,^ 
but  lavishly  supported  also  by  the  tithes  and  free-will 
olBferings  of  the  people.^  //  is  a  sanctuary  of  the  king 
and  a  house  of  the  kingdom,^  Jeroboam  had  ordained 
Dan,  at  the  other  end  of  the  kingdom,  to  be  the  fellow 
of  Bethel ;  ^®  but  Dan  was  far  away  from  the  bulk  of 
the  people,  and  in  the  eighth  century  BetheFs  real  rival 


'  I  Kings  xii.  25  £f.,  and  Amos  and  Rosea  passim. 

*  Hosea  v.  I. 

■  I  Kings  xviii.  30  ff. 

*  I  Kings  xii.  25. 

•  Originally  so  called  from  their  elevation  (though  oftener  on  the 
flank  than  on  the  summit  of  a  hill) ;  but  like  the  name  High  Street 
or  the  Scottish  High  Kirk,  the  term  came  to  be  dissociated  from 
physical  height  and  was  applied  to  any  sanctuary,  even  in  a  hollow, 
like  so  many  of  the  sacred  wells. 

•  The  sanctuary  itself  was  probably  on  the  present  site  of  the  Burj 
Beitin  (with  the  ruins  of  an  early  Christian  Church),  some  lew 
minutes  to  the  south-east  of  the  present  village  of  Beitin,  which  pro* 
bably  represents  the  city  of  Bethel  that  was  called  Luz  at  the  first. 

*  I  Kings  xii.  25  fT. ;  Amos  vii. 

•  Amos  iv.  4.  •  Amos  vii.  13.  i  Kings  xii.  2$  C 


THE  EIGHTH  CENTURY  IN  ISRAEL 


37 


was  Gilgal.^  Whether  this  was  the  Gilgal  by  Jericho, 
.  or  the  other  Gilgal  on  the  Samarian  hills  near  Shiloh, 
is  uncertain.  The  latter  had  been  a  sanctuary  in 
Elijah's  day,  with  a  settlement  of  the  prophets ;  but 
the  former  must  have  proved  the  greater  attraction 
to  a  people  so  devoted  to  the  sacred  events  of  their 
past.  Was  it  not  the  first  resting-place  of  the  Ark 
after  the  passage  of  Jordan,  the  scene  of  the  re- 
institution  of  circumcision,  of  the  anointing  of  the 
first  king,  of  Judah's  second  submission  to  David  ?  * 
As  there  were  many  Gilgals  in  the  land — literally  cront- 
leckSf  ancient  stone-circles  sacred  to  the  Canaanites  as 
well  as  to  Israel — so  there  were  many  Mizpehs,  Watch- 
towers,  Seers^  stations:  the  one  mentioned  by  Hosea 
was  probably  in  Gilead.'  To  the  southern  Beersheba, 
to  which  Elijah  had  fled  from  Jezebel,  pilgrimages  were 
made  by  northern  Israelites  traversing  Judah.  The 
sanctuary  on  Carmel  was  the  ancient  altar  of  Jehovah 
which  Elijah  had  rebuilt;  but  Carmel  seems  at  this 
time  to  have  lain,  as  it  did  so  often,  in  the  power  of 
the  Phoenicians,  for  it  is  imagined  by  the  prophets  only 
as  a  hiding-place  from  the  face  of  Jehovah.* 

At  all  these  sanctuaries  it  was  Jehovah  and  no  other 


*  Curiously  enough  conceived  by  many  of  the  early  Christian 
Fathers  as  containing  the  second  of  the  calves.  Cyril,  Comm,  in 
Hoseam,  5;  Epiph.,  De  Vitis  Proph.^  237  ;  Chron.  Pasc,  161. 

*  Josh.  iv.  20  ff,,  V.  2  ff. ;  i  Sam.  xi.  14,  1 5,  etc. ;  2  Sam.  xix.  15,  40. 
This  Gilgal  by  Jericho  fell  to  N.  Israel  after  the  Disruption  ;  but  there 
is  nothing  in  Amos  or  Hosea  to  tell  us,  v^hether  it  or  the  Gilgal  near 
Shiloh,  which  seems  to  have  absorbed  the  sanctity  of  the  latter,  is  the 
shrine  which  they  couple  with  Bethel — except  that  they  never  talk 
of  "  going  up  "  to  it.  The  passage  from  Epiphanius  in  previous  note 
speaks  of  the  Gilgal  with  the  calf  as  the  "  Gilgal  which  is  in  Shiloh." 

■  Site  uncertain.    See  Hist.  Geog.^  pp.  579,  586. 

*  Amos  ix.  3.    But  cf.  i.  2. 


38 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


who  was  sought:  thy  God^  O  Israel^  which  brought  thee 
up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt}  At  Bethel  and  at  Dan 
He  was  adored  in  the  form  of  a  calf ;  probably  at  Gilgal 
also,  for  there  is  a  strong  tradition  to  that  effect ;  *  and 
elsewhere  men  still  consulted  the  other  images  which 
had  been  used  by  Saul  and  by  David,  the  Ephod  and 
the  Teraphim.^  With  these  there  was  the  old  Semitic 
symbol  of  the  Maggebah,  or  upright  stone  on  which 
oil  was  poured.*  All  of  them  had  been  used  in  the 
worship  of  Jehovah  by  the  great  examples  and  leaders 
of  the  past ;  all  of  them  had  been  spared  by  Elijah 
and  Elisha :  it  was  no  wonder  that  the  common  people 
of  the  eighth  century  felt  them  to  be  indispensable 
elements  of  religion,  the  removal  of  which,  like  the 
removal  of  the  monarchy  or  of  sacrifice  itself,  would 
mean  utter  divorce  from  the  nation's  God.* 

One  great  exception  must  be  made.  Compared  with 
the  sanctuaries  we  have  mentioned,  Zion  itself  was 
very  modem.  But  it  contained  the  main  repository 
of  Israers  religion,  the  Ark,  and  in  connection  with 
the  Ark  the  worship  of  Jehovah  was  not  a  worship  of 


>  2  Kings  xii.  28. 

■  See  above,  p.  37,  n,  I. 

•  The  Ephod,  the  plated  thing*,  presumably  a  wooden  image  covered 
either  with  a  skin  of  metal  or  a  cloak  of  metal.  The  Teraphim  were 
images  in  human  shape. 

^  The  menhir  of  modern  Palestine — not  a  hewn  pillar,  but  oblong 
natural  stone  narrowing  a  Httle  towards  the  top  (of.  W.  R,  Smith, 
Religion  of  the  Semites^  183-188).  From  Hosea  x,  I,  2,  it  would  appear 
that  the  ma9<;eboth  of  the  eighth  century  were  artificial.  They  make 
good  ma99eboth  (A.V.  wrongly  images). 

•  So  indeed  Hosea  iii.  4  implies.  The  Asherah,  the  pole  or  symbolic 
tree  of  Canaanite  worship,  does  not  appear  to  have  been  used  as  a 
part  of  the  ritual  of  Jehovah's  worship.  But,  that  there  was  con- 
stantly a  temptation  so  to  use  it,  is  clear  from  Deut.  xvi,  21,  22 
Sec  Diiver  on  that  passage. 


THE  EIGHTH  CENTURY  IN  ISRAEL  39 


images.  It  is  significant  that  from  this,  the  original 
sanctuary  of  Israel,  with  the  pure  worship,  the  new 
prophecy  derived  its  first  inspiration.  But  to  that 
we  shall  return  later  with  Amos.^  Apart  from  the  Ark, 
Jerusalem  was  not  free  from  images,  nor  even  from  the 
altars  of  foreign  deities. 

Where  the  externals  of  the  ritual  were  thus  so  much 
the  same  as  those  of  the  Canaanite  cults,  which  were  still 
practised  in  and  around  the  land,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  the  worship  of  Jehovah  should  be  further  invaded 
by  many  pagan  practices,  nor  that  Jehovah  Himself 
should  be  regarded  with  imaginations  steeped  in  pagan 
ideas  of  the  Godhead.  That  even  the  foulest  tempers 
of  the  Canaanite  ritual,  those  inspired  by  wine  and  the 
sexual  passion,  were  licensed  in  the  sanctuaries  of 
Israel,  both  Amos  and  Hosea  testify.  But  the  worst 
of  the  evil  was  wrought  in  the  popular  conception  of 
God.  Let  us  remember  again  that  Jehovah  had  no 
real  rival  at  this  time  in  the  devotion  of  His  people, 
and  that  their  faith  was  expressed  both  by  the  legal 
forms  of  His  religion  and  by  a  liberality  which 
exceeded  these.  The  tithes  were  paid  to  Him,  and 
paid,  it  would  appear,  with  more  than  legal  frequency.^ 
Sabbath  and  New  Moon,  as  days  of  worship  and  rest 
from  business,  were  observed  with  a  Pharisaic  scrupu- 
lousness for  the  letter  if  not  for  the  spirit.^  The 
prescribed  festivals  were  held,  and  thronged  by  zealous 
devotees  who  rivalled  each  other  in  the  amount  of  their 
free-will  offerings.*  Pilgrimages  were  made  to  Bethel, 
to  Gilgal,  to  far  Beersheba,  and  the  very  way  to  the 
latter  appeared  as  sacred  to  the  Israelite  as  the  way 


'  See  below,  p.  99.  ■  Amos  vii.  4 :  cf.  2  Kings  v.  2^ 

'  Amos  iv.  4ff.  *  Amos  iv.  4C 


40 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


to  Mecca  does  to  a  pious  Moslem  of  to-day.*  Yet,  in 
spite  of  all  this  devotion  to  their  God,  Israel  had  no 
true  ideas  of  Him.  To  quote  Amos,  they  sought  His 
sanctuaries,  but  Him  they  did  not  seek ;  in  the  words 
of  Hosea's  frequent  plaint,  they  did  not  know  Htm. 
To  the  mass  of  the  people,  to  their  governors,  their 
priests,  and  the  most  of  their  prophets,  Jehovah  was 
but  the  characteristic  Semitic  deity — patron  of  His 
people,  aud  caring  for  them  alone — who  had  helped 
them  in  the  past,  and  was  bound  to  help  them  still — 
very  jealous  as  to  the  correctness  of  His  ritual  and 
the  amount  of  His  sacrifices,  but  indifferent  about  real 
morality.  Nay,  there  were  still  darker  streaks  in  their 
views  of  Him.  A  god,  figured  as  an  ox,  could  not 
be  adored  by  a  cattle-breeding  people  without  starting 
in  their  minds  thoughts  too  much  akin  to  the  foul 
tempers  of  the  Canaanite  faiths.  These  things  it  is 
almost  a  shame  to  mention ;  but  without  knowing  that 
they  fermented  in  the  life  of  that  generation,  we  shall 
not  appreciate  the  vehemence  of  Amos  or  of  Hosea. 

Such  a  religion  had  no  discipline  for  the  busy, 
mercenary  life  of  the  day.  Injustice  and  fraud  were 
rife  in  the  very  precincts  of  the  sanctuary.  Magistrates 
and  priests  alike  were  smitten  with  their  generation's 
love  of  money,  and  did  everything  for  reward.  Again 
and  again  do  the  prophets  speak  of  bribery.  Judges 
took  gifts  and  perverted  the  cause  of  the  poor ;  priests 
drank  the  mulcted  wine,  and  slept  on  the  pledged 
garments  of  religious  offenders.  There  was  no  disin- 
terested service  of  God  or  of  the  commonweal.  Mammon 
was  supreme.  The  influence  of  the  commercial  character 
of  the  age  appears  in  another  very  remarkable  result 


*  See  below,  p.  185. 


THE  EIGHTH  CENTURA  TN  ISRAEL 


An  agricultural  community  is  always  sensitive  to  the 
religion  of  nature.  They  are  awed  by  its  chastisements 
— droughts,  famines  and  earthquakes.  They  feel  its 
majestic  order  in  the  course  of  the  seasons,  the  pro- 
cession of  day  and  night,  the  march  of  the  great  stars 
all  the  host  of  the  Lord  of  hosts.  But  Amos  seems  to 
have  had  to  break  into  passionate  reminders  of  Him  that 
maketh  Orion  and  the  Pleiades,  and  turneth  the  murk 
into  morning.^  Several  physical  calamities  visited  the 
land.  The  locusts  are  bad  in  Palestine  every  sixth 
or  seventh  year :  one  year  before  Amos  began  they 
had  been  very  bad.  There  was  a  monstrous  drought, 
followed  by  a  famine.  There  was  a  long-remembered 
earthquake — the  earthquake  in  the  days  of  Uzziah. 
With  Egypt  so  near,  the  home  of  the  plague,  and 
with  so  much  war  afoot  in  Northern  Syria,  there  were 
probably  more  pestilences  in  Western  Asia  than  those 
recorded  in  803,  765  and  759.  There  was  a  total 
eclipse  of  the  sun  in  763.  But  of  all  these,  except 
perhaps  the  pestilence,  a  commercial  people  are  inde- 
pendent as  an  agricultural  are  not.  Israel  speedily 
recovered  from  them,  without  any  moral  improvement. 
Even  when  the  earthquake  came  they  said  in  pride  and 
stoutness  of  heart.  The  bricks  are  fallen  down,  but  we  will 
build  with  hewn  stones;  the  sycomores  are  cut  down,  but  we 
will  change  to  cedars}  It  was  a  marvellous  generation — 
so  joyous,  so  energetic,  so  patriotic,  so  devout  I  But 
its  strength  was  the  strength  of  cruel  wealth,  its  peace 
the  peace  of  an  immoral  religion. 

I  have  said  that  the  age  is  very  modern,  and  we 
shall  indeed  go  to  its  prophets  feeling  that  they  speak 
to  conditions  of  life  extremely  like  our  own.     But  ii 


'  But  whether  these  be  by  Amos  see  Chap.  XL 


'  Isa  ix.  10. 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


we  wish  a  still  closer  analogy  from  our  history,  we 
must  travel  back  to  the  fourteenth  century  in  England 
— Langland's  and  Wyclifs  century,  which,  like  this  one 
in  Israel,  saw  both  the  first  real  attempts  towards  a 
national  literature,  and  the  first  real  attempts  towards 
a  moral  and  religious  reform.  Then  as  in  Israel  a  long 
and  victorious  reign  was  drawing  to  a  close,  under  the 
threat  of  disaster  when  it  should  have  passed.  Then 
as  in  Israel  there  had  been  droughts,  earthquakes  and 
pestilences  with  no  moral  results  upon  the  nation. 
Then  also  there  was  a  city  life  developing  at  the  expense 
of  country  life.  Then  also  the  wealthy  began  to 
draw  aloof  from  the  people.  Then  also  there  was 
a  national  religion,  zealously  cultivated  and  endowed 
by  the  liberahty  of  the  people,  but  superstitious, 
mercenary,  and  corrupted  by  sexual  disorder.  Then 
too  there  were  many  pilgrimages  to  popular  shrines, 
and  the  land  was  strewn  with  mendicant  priests  and 
hireling  preachers.  And  then  too  prophecy  raised  its 
voice,  for  the  first  time  fearless  in  England.  As  we 
study  the  verses  of  Amos  we  shall  find  again  and 
again  the  most  exact  parallels  to  them  in  the  verses  of 
Langland's  Vision  of  Piers  the  Plowman^  which  denounce 
the  same  vices  in  Church  and  State,  and  enforce  the 
same  principles  of  religion  and  morality. 

It  was  when  the  reign  of  Jeroboam  was  at  its  height 
of  assured  victory,  when  the  nation's  prosperity  seemed 
impregnable  after  the  survival  of  those  physical  calamities, 
when  the  worship  and  the  commerce  were  in  full  course 
throughout  the  land,  that  the  first  of  the  new  prophets 
broke  out  against  Israel  in  the  name  of  Jehovah, 
threatening  judgment  alike  upon  the  new  civilisation 


THE  EIGHTH  CENTURY  IN  ISRAEL  43 

of  which  they  were  so  proud  and  the  old  religion  in 
which  they  were  so  confident.  These  prophets  were 
inspired  by  feelings  of  the  purest  morality,  by  the 
passionate  conviction  that  God  could  no  longer  bear 
such  impurity  and  disorder.  But,  as  we  have  seen, 
no  prophet  in  Israel  ever  worked  on  the  basis  of 
principles  only.  He  came  always  in  alliance  with 
events.  These  first  appeared  in  the  shape  of  the  great 
physical  disasters.  But  a  more  powerful  instrument  of 
Providence,  in  the  service  of  judgment,  was  appearing 
on  the  horizon.  This  was  the  Assyrian  Empire. 
So  vast  was  its  influence  on  prophecy  that  we  must 
devote  to  it  a  separate  chapter. 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  ASSYRIA  UPON  PROPHECY 

BY  far  the  greatest  event  in  the  eighth  century 
before  Christ  was  the  appearance  of  Assyria  in 
Palestine.  To  Israel  since  the  Exodus  and  Conquest, 
nothing  had  happened  capable  of  so  enormous  an 
influence  at  once  upon  their  national  fortunes  and  their 
religious  development.  But  while  the  Exodus  and 
Conquest  had  advanced  the  political  and  spiritual  pro- 
gress of  Israel  in  equal  proportion,  the  effect  of  the 
Assyrian  invasion  was  to  divorce  these  two  interests, 
and  destroy  the  state  while  it  refined  and  confirmed 
the  religion.  After  permitting  the  Northern  Kingdom 
to  reach  an  extent  and  splendour  unrivalled  since 
the  days  of  Solomon,  Assyria  overthrew  it  in  721 
and  left  all  Israel  scarcely  a  third  of  their  former 
magnitude.  But  while  Assyria  proved  so  disastrous 
to  the  state,  her  influence  upon  the  prophecy  of  the 
period  was  little  short  of  creative.  Humanly  speaking, 
this  highest  stage  of  Israelis  religion  could  not  have 
been  achieved  by  the  prophets  except  in  alliance  with 
the  armies  of  that  heathen  empire.  Before  then  we  turn 
to  their  pages  it  may  be  well  for  us  to  make  clear  in 
what  directions  Assyria  performed  this  spiritual  service 
for  Israel.  While  pursuing  this  inquiry  we  may  be 
able  to  find  answers  to  the  scarcely  less  important 

44 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  ASSYRIA  UPON  PROPHECY  45 


questions  :  why  the  prophets  were  at  first  doubtful  of 
the  part  Assyria  was  destined  to  play  in  the  providence 
of  the  Almighty  ?  and  why,  when  the  prophets  were 
at  last  convinced  of  the  certainty  of  Israel's  overthrow, 
the  statesmen  of  Israel  and  the  bulk  of  the  people  still 
remained  so  unconcerned  about  her  coming,  or  so 
sanguine  of  their  power  to  resist  her  ?  This  requires, 
to  begin  with,  a  summary  of  the  details  of  the  Assyrian 
advance  upon  Palestine. 

In  the  far  past  Palestine  had  often  been  the  hunting- 
ground  of  the  Assyrian  kings.  But  after  iioo  B.C., 
and  for  nearly  two  centuries  and  a  half,  her  states 
were  left  to  themselves.  Then  Assyria  resumed  the 
task  of  breaking  down  that  disbelief  in  her  power 
with  which  her  long  withdrawal  seems  to  have  inspired 
their  politics.  In  870  Assurnasirpal  reached  the 
Levant,  and  took  tribute  from  Tyre  and  Sidon.  Omri 
was  reigning  in  Samaria,  and  must  have  come  into 
close  relations  with  the  Assyrians,  for  during  more 
than  a  century  and  a  half  after  his  death  they  still 
called  the  land  of  Israel  by  his  name.^  In  854 
Salmanassar  II.  defeated  at  Karkar  the  combined 
forces  of  Ahab  and  Benhadad.  In  850,  849  and  846 
he  conducted  campaigns  against  Damascus.  In  842 
he  received  tribute  from  Jehu,^  and  in  839  again  fought 
Damascus  under  Hazael.  After  this  there  passed  a 
whole  generation  during  which  Assyria  came  no  farther 
south  than  Arpad,  some  sixty  miles  north  of  Damascus ; 
and  Hazael  employed  the  respite  in  those  campaigns 
which  proved  so  disastrous  for  Israel,  by  robbing  her 
of  the   provinces  across  Jordan,  and  ravaging  the 

*  "  The  house  of  Omri  " :  so  even  in  Sargon's  time,  722 — 705. 

*  The  Black  Obehsk  of  Salmanassar  in  the  British  Museum,  on 
which  the  messengers  of  Jehu  are  portrayed 


4^ 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


country  about  Samaria.^  In  803  Assyria  returned, 
and  accomplished  the  siege  and  capture  of  Damascus. 
The  first  consequence  to  Israel  was  that  restoration 
of  her  hopes  under  Joash,  at  which  the  aged  Elisha 
was  still  spared  to  assist,^  and  which  reached  its  fulfil- 
ment in  the  recovery  of  all  Eastern  Palestine  by 
Jeroboam  IL'  Jeroboam's  own  relations  to  Assyria 
have  not  been  recorded  either  by  the  Bible  or  by  the 
Assyrian  monuments.  It  is  hard  to  think  that  he  paid 
no  tribute  to  the  ^*  king  of  kings."  At  all  events  it 
is  certain  that,  while  Assyria  again  overthrew  the 
Arameans  of  Damascus  in  773  and  their  neighbours 
of  Hadrach  in  772  and  765,  Jeroboam  was  himself 
invading  Aramean  land,  and  the  Book  of  Kings  even 
attributes  to  him  an  extension  of  territory,  or  at  least 
"of  political  influence,  up  to  the  northern  mouth  of  the 
great  pass  between  the  Lebanons.*  For  the  next  twenty 
years  Assyria  only  once  came  as  far  as  Lebanon — to 
Hadrach  in  759 — and  it  may  have  been  this  long 
quiescence  which  enabled  the  rulers  and  people  of  Israel 
to  forget,  if  indeed  their  religion  and  sanguine  patriotism 
had  ever  allowed  them  to  realise,  how  much  the  con- 
quests and  splendour  of  Jeroboam's  reign  were  due,  not 
to  .themselves,  but  to  the  heathen  power  which  had 
maimed  their  oppressors.  Their  dreams  were  brief. 
Before  Jeroboam  himself  was  dead,  a  new  king  had 
usurped  the  Assyrian  throne  (745  B.C.)  and  inaugurated 
a  more  vigorous  policy.    Borrowing  the  name  of  the 


'  2  Kings  X.  32  f. ;  xiii.  3. 

•  2  Kings  xiii.  14  ff. 

•  The  phrase  in  2  Kings  xiii.  5,  Jehovah  gave  Israel  a  saviour^  is 
interpreted  by  certain  scholars  as  if  the  saviour  were  Assyria.  Bi 
xiv.  27  he  is  plainly  said  to  be  Jeroboam. 

^  The  entering  in  of  Hamath  (2  Kings  xiv.  aS), 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  ASSYRIA  UPON  PROPHECY  47 


ancient  Tiglath-Pileser,  he  followed  that  conqueror's 
path  across  the  Euphrates.  At  first  it  seemed  as  if  he 
was  to  suffer  check.  His  forces  were  engrossed  by  the 
siege  of  Arpad  for  three  years  (c.  743),  and  this  delay, 
along  with  that  of  two  years  more,  during  which  he 
had  to  return  to  the  conquest  of  Babylon,  may  well 
have  given  cause  to  the  courts  of  Damascus  and 
Samaria  to  believe  that  the  Assyrian  power  had  not 
really  revived.  Combining,  they  attacked  Judah  under 
Ahaz.  But  Ahaz  appealed  to  Tiglath-Pileser,  who 
within  a  year  (734 — 733)  had  overthrown  Damascus  and 
carried  captive  the  populations  of  Gilead  and  Galilee. 
There  could  now  be  no  doubt  as  to  what  the  Assyrian 
power  meant  for  the  political  fortunes  of  Israel.  Before 
this  resistless  and  inexorable  empire,  the  people  of 
Jehovah  were  as  the  most  frail  of  their  neighbours — 
sure  of  defeat,  and  sure,  too,  of  that  terrible  captivity 
in  exile  which  formed  the  novel  policy  of  the  invaders 
against  the  tribes  who  withstood  them.  Israel  dared 
to  withstand.  The  vassal  Hoshea,  whom  the  Assyrians 
had  placed  on  the  throne  of  Samaria  in  730,  kept  back 
his  tribute.  The  people  rallied  to  him ;  and  for  more 
than  three  years  this  little  tribe  of  highlanders  resisted 
in  their  capital  the  Assyrian  siege.  Then  came  the 
end.  Samaria  fell  in  721,  and  Israel  went  into  captivity 
beyond  the  Euphrates. 

In  following  the  course  of  this  long  tragedy,  a  man's 
heart  cannot  but  feel  that  all  the  splendour  and  the 
glory  did  not  lie  with  the  prophets,  in  spite  of  their 
being  the  only  actors  in  the  drama  who  perceived  its 
moral  issues  and  predicted  its  actual  end.  For  who 
can  withhold  admiration  from  those  few  tribesmen, 
who  accepted  no  defeat  as  final,  but  so  long  as  they 
were  left  to  their  fatherland  rallied  their  ranks  to  itf 


4« 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


liberty  and  defied  the  huge  empire.  Nor  was  their 
courage  always  as  blind,  as  in  the  time  of  Isaiah 
Samaria's  so  fatally  became.  For  one  cannot  have 
failed  to  notice,  how  fitful  and  irregular  was  Assyria's 
advance,  at  least  up  to  the  reign  of  Tiglath-Pileser ; 
nor  how  prolonged  and  doubtful  were  her  sieges  of 
some  of  the  towns.  The  Assyrians  themselves  do  not 
always  record  spoil  or  tribute  after  what  they  are 
pleased  to  call  their  victories  over  the  cities  of  Palestine. 
To  the  same  campaign  they  had  often  to  return  for 
several  years  in  succession.^  It  took  Tiglath-Pileser 
himself  three  years  to  reduce  Arpad ;  Salmanassar  IV. 
besieged  Samaria  for  three  years,  and  was  slain  before 
it  yielded.  These  facts  enable  us  to  understand  that, 
apart  from  the  moral  reasons  which  the  prophets  urged 
for  the  certainty  of  Israel's  overthrow  by  Assyria,  it 
was  always  within  the  range  of  political  possibility  that 
Assyria  would  not  come  back,  and  that  while  she  was 
engaged  with  revolts  of  other  portions  of  her  huge  and 
disorganised  empire,  a  combined  revolution  on  the 
part  of  her  Syrian  vassals  would  be  successful.  The 
prophets  themselves  felt  the  influence  of  these  chances. 
They  were  not  always  confident,  as  we  shall  see,  that 
Assyria  was  to  be  the  means  of  Israel's  overthrow. 
Amos,  and  in  his  earlier  years  Isaiah,  describe  her 
with  a  caution  and  a  vagueness  for  which  there  is  no 
other  explanation  than  the  political  uncertainty  that 
again  and  again  hung  over  the  future  of  her  advance 
upon  Syria.  It,  then,  even  in  those  high  minds,  to 
whom  the  moral  issue  was  so  clear,  the  political  form 
that  issue  should  assume  was  yet  temporarily  uncertain, 


'  Salmanassar  II.  in  850,  849,  846  to  war  against  Dad'idri  ol 
Damascus,  and  in  842  and  839  against  Hazael,  his  successor. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  ASSYRIA  UPON  PROPHECY  49 


what  good  reasons  must  the  mere  statesmen  of  Syria 
have  often  felt  for  the  proud  security  which  filled 
the  intervals  between  the  Assyrian  invasions,  or  the 
sanguine  hopes  which  inspired  their  resistance  to  the 
latter. 

We  must  not  cast  over  the  whole  Assyrian  advance 
the  triumphant  air  of  the  annals  of  such  kings  as 
Tiglath-Pileser  or  Sennacherib.  Campaigning  in  Pales- 
tine was  a  dangerous  business  even  to  the  Romans ; 
and  for  the  Assyrian  armies  there  was  always  possible 
besides  some  sudden  recall  by  the  rumour  of  a  revolt 
in  a  distant  province.  Their  own  annals  supply  us 
with  good  reasons  for  the  sanguine  resistance  offered 
to  them  by  the  tribes  of  Palestine.  No  defeat,  of 
course,  is  recorded ;  but  the  annals  are  full  of  delays 
and  withdrawals.  Then  the  Plague  would  break 
out;  we  know  how  in  the  last  year  of  the  century 
it  turned  Sennacherib,  and  saved  Jerusalem.*  In 
short,  up  almost  to  the  end  the  Syrian  chiefs  had  some 
fair  political  reasons  for  resistance  to  a  power  which 
had  so  often  defeated  them ;  while  at  the  very  end, 
when  no  such  reason  remained  and  our  political 
sympathy  is  exhausted,  we  feel  it  replaced  by  an  even 
warmer  admiration  for  their  desperate  defence.  Mere 
mountain-cats  of  tribes  as  some  of  them  were,  they 
held  their  poorly  furnished  rocks  against  one,  two  or 
three  years  of  cruel  siege. 

In  Israel  these  political  reasons  for  courage  against 
Assyria  were  enforced  by  the  whole  instincts  of  the 
popular  religion.  The  century  had  felt  a  new  out- 
burst of  enthusiasm   for  Jehovah.^    This  was  con- 


*  See  in  this  series  Isaiah^  Vol.  I.,  pp.  359  ff. 
■  See  above,  pp.  35  ff. 

VOL.  I. 


4 


50 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


sequent,  not  only  upon  the  victories  He  had  granted 
over  Aram,  but  upon  the  literature  of  the  peace  which 
followed  those  victories  :  the  collection  of  the  stories 
of  the  ancient  miracles  of  Jehovah  in  the  beginning 
of  His  people's  history,  and  of  the  purpose  He  had 
even  then  announced  of  bringing  Israel  to  supreme 
rank  in  the  world.  Such  a  God,  so  anciently  mani- 
fested, so  recently  proved,  could  never  surrender  His 
own  nation  to  a  mere  Goi  ^ — a  heathen  and  a  barbarian 
people.  Add  this  dogma  of  the  popular  religion  of 
Israel  to  those  substantial  hopes  of  Assyria's  with- 
drawal from  Palestine,  and  you  see  cause,  intelligible 
and  adequate,  for  the  complacency  of  Jeroboam  and 
his  people  to  the  fact  that  Assyria  had  at  last,  by  the 
fall  of  Damascus,  reached  their  own  borders,  as  well 
as  for  the  courage  with  which  Hoshea  in  725  threw 
off  the  Assyrian  yoke,  and,  with  a  willing  people,  for 
three  years  defended  Samaria  against  the  great  king. 
Let  us  not  think  that  the  opponents  of  the  prophets 
were  utter  fools  or  mere  puppets  of  fate.  They  had 
reasons  for  their  optimism  ;  they  fought  for  their  hearths 
and  altars  with  a  valour  and  a  patience  which  proves 
that  the  nation  as  a  whole  was  not  so  corrupt,  as 
we  are  sometimes,  by  the  language  of  the  prophets, 
tempted  to  suppose. 

But  all  this — the  reasonableness  of  the  hope  of 
resisting  Assyria,  the  valour  which  so  stubbornly 
fought  her,  the  religious  faith  which  sanctioned  both 
valour  and  hope — only  the  more  vividly  illustrates  the 
singular  independence  of  the  prophets,  who  took  an 
opposite  view,  who  so  consistently  affirmed  that  Israel 


To  use  the  term  which  Amos  adopts  with  such  ironical  force : 
vi.  14. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  ASSYRIA  UPON  PROPHECY  51 


must  fall,  and  so  early  foretold  that  she  should  fall 
to  Assyria. 

The  reason  of  this  conviction  of  the  prophets  was, 
of  course,  their  fundamental  faith  in  the  righteous- 
ness of  Jehovah.  That  was  a  belief  quite  independent 
of  the  course  of  events.  As  a  matter  of  history,  the 
ethical  reasons  for  Israel's  doom  were  manifest  to  the 
prophets  within  Israel's  own  life,  before  the  signs 
grew  clear  on  the  horizon  that  the  doomster  was  to  be 
Assyria.^  Nay,  we  may  go  further,  and  say  that  it 
could  not  possibly  have  been  otherwise.  For  except 
the  prophets  had  been  previously  furnished  with  the 
ethical  reasons  for  Assyria's  resistless  advance  on 
Israel,  to  their  sensitive  minds  that  advance  must  have 
been  a  hopeless  and  a  paralysing  problem.  But  they 
nowhere  treat  it  as  a  problem.  By  them  Assyria  is 
always  either  welcomed  as  a  proof  or  summoned  as  a 
means — the  proof  of  their  conviction  that  Israel  re- 
quires humbhng,  the  means  of  carrying  that  humbling 
into  effect.  The  faith  of  the  prophets  is  ready  for 
Assyria  from  the  moment  that  she  becomes  ominous 
for  Israel,  and  every  footfall  of  her  armies  on  Jehovah's 
soil  becomes  the  corroboration  of  the  purpose  He  has 
already  declared  to  His  servants  in  the  terms  of  their 
moral  consciousness.  The  spiritual  service  which 
Assyria  rendered  to  Israel  was  therefore  secondary  to 
the  prophets'  native  convictions  of  the  righteousness 
of  God,  and  could  not  have  been  performed  without 


'  When  we  get  down  among  the  details  we  shall  see  clear  evidence 
for  this  fact,  for  instance,  that  Amos  prophesied  against  Israel  at  a 
time  when  he  thought  that  the  Lord's  anger  was  to  be  exhausted 
in  purely  natural  chastisements  of  His  people,  and  before  it  was 
revealed  to  him  that  Assyria  was  required  to  follow  up  these 
chastisements  with  a  heavier  blow.    See  Chap.  VI.,  Section  a. 


I 


5a 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


these.  This  will  become  even  more  clear  if  we  look 
for  a  little  at  the  exact  nature  of  that  service. 

In  its  broadest  effects,  the  Assyrian  invasion  meant 
for  Israel  a  very  considerable  change  in  the  intellectual 
outlook.  Hitherto  Israelis  world  had  virtually  lain 
between  the  borders  promised  of  old  to  their  ambition 
— the  river  of  Egypt^  and  the  great  river^  the  River 
Euphrates,  These  had  marked  not  merely  the  sphere 
of  Israel's  politics,  but  the  horizon  within  which  Israel 
had  been  accustomed  to  observe  the  action  of  their 
God  and  to  prove  His  character,  to  feel  the  problems  of 
their  religion  rise  and  to  grapple  with  them.  But  now 
there  burst  from  the  outside  of  this  little  world  that 
awful  power,  sovereign  and  inexorable,  which  effaced  ail 
distinctions  and  treated  Israel  in  the  same  manner  as 
her  heathen  neighbours.  This  was  more  than  a 
w^idening  of  the  world :  it  was  a  change  of  the  very 
poles.  At  first  sight  it  appeared  merely  to  have  in- 
creased the  scale  on  which  history  was  conducted ; 
it  was  really  an  alteration  of  the  whole  character 
of  history.  Religion  itself  shrivelled  up,  before  a  force 
so  much  vaster  than  anything  it  had  yet  encountered, 
and  so  contemptuous  of  its  claims.  What  is  Jehovah, 
said  the  Assyrian  in  his  laughter,  more  than  the  gods  oj 
Damascus^  or  of  Hamath,  or  of  the  Philistines  ?  In  fact, 
for  the  mind  of  Israel,  the  crisis,  though  less  in  degree, 
was  in  quality  not  unlike  that  produced  in  the  rehgion 
of  Europe  by  the  revelation  of  the  Copernican  astronomy. 
As  the  earth,  previously  believed  to  be  the  centre  of 
the  universe,  the  stage  on  which  the  Son  of  God  had 
achieved  God's   eternal   purposes  to   mankind,  was 


*  That  is,  of  course,  not  the  Nile,  but  the  great  Wady,  at  present 
known  as  the  Wady  el  'Arish,  which  divides  Palestine  from  Egypt. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  ASSYRIA  UPON  PROPHECY  53 


discovered  tc  be  but  a  satellite  of  one  of  innumerable 
suns,  a  mere  ball  swung  beside  millions  of  others  by 
a  force  which  betrayed  no  sign  of  sympathy  with  the 
great  transactions  which  took  place  on  it,  and  so  faith 
in  the  Divine  worth  of  these  was  rudely  shaken — so 
Israel,  who  had  believed  themselves  to  be  the  peculiar 
people  of  the  Creator,  the  solitary  agents  of  the  God 
of  Righteousness  to  all  mankind,*  and  who  now  felt 
themselves  brought  to  an  equality  with  other  tribes 
by  this  sheer  force,  which,  brutally  indifferent  to 
spiritual  distinctions,  awayed  the  fortunes  of  all  alike, 
must  have  been  tempved  to  unbelief  in  the  spiritual 
facts  of  their  history,  in  the  power  of  their  God  and 
the  destiny  He  had  promised  them.  Nothing  could 
have  saved  Israel,  as  nothing  could  have  saved  Europe, 
but  a  conception  of  God  which  rose  to  this  new 
demand  upon  its  powers- -a  faith  which  said,  "Our 
God  is  sufficient  for  this  greato  world  and  its  forces 
that  so  dwarf  our  own  ;  the  discovery  of  these  only 
excites  in  us  a  more  awful  wonder  of  His  power." 
The  prophets  had  such  a  conception  of  God.  To 
them  He  was  absolute  righteous-^iess — righteousness 
wide  as  the  widest  world,  strongei  than  the  strongest 
force.  To  the  prophets,  therefore,  Ki.'^  rise  of  Assyria 
only  increased  the  possibilities  of  Providence.  But 
it  could  not  have  done  this  had  Providence  not  already 
been  invested  in  a  God  capable  by  His^  character  of 
rising  to  such  possibilities. 

Assyria,  however,  was  not  only  Force  :  she  was  also 
the  symbol  of  a  great  Idea — the  Idea  of  Unity.  We 
have  just  ventured  on  one  historical  analog3\  We 
may  try  another  and  a  more  exact  one.    The  Eva^^irtj 


So  already  in  the  JE  narratives  of  the  Pentateuch, 


54 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


of  Rome,  grasping  the  whole  world  in  its  power  and 
reducing  all  races  of  men  to  much  the  same  level  of 
political  rights,  powerfully  assisted  Christian  theology 
in  the  task  of  imposing  upon  the  human  mind  a  clearer 
imagination  of  unity  in  the  government  of  the  world 
and  of  s^Mritual  equality  among  men  of  all  nations. 
A  not  dissimilar  service  to  the  faith  of  Israel  was 
performed  by  the  Empire  of  Assyria.  History,  that 
hitherto  had  been  but  a  series  of  angry  pools,  became 
as  the  ocean  swaying  in  tides  to  one  almighty  impulse. 
It  was  far  easier  to  imagine  a  sovereign  Providence 
when  Assyria  reduced  history  to  a  unity  by  over- 
throwing all  the  rulers  and  all  their  gods,  than  when 
history  was  broken  up  into  the  independent  fortunes 
.of  many  states,  each  with  its  own  religion  divinely 
valid  in  its  own  territory.  By  shattering  the  tribes 
Assyria  shattered  the  tribal  theory  of  religion,  which 
we  have  seen  to  be  the  characteristic  Semitic  theory — 
a  god  for  every  tribe,  a  tribe  for  every  god.  The  field 
was  cleared  of  the  many :  there  was  room  for  the  One. 
That  He  appeared,  not  as  the  God  of  the  conquering 
race,  but  as  the  Deity  of  one  of  their  many  victims,  was 
due  to  Jehovah's  righteousness.  At  this  juncture,  when 
the  world  was  suggested  to  have  one  throne  and  that 
throne  was  empty,  there  was  a  great  chance,  if  we 
may  so  put  it,  for  a  god  with  a  character.  And  the 
only  God  in  all  the  Semitic  world  who  had  a  character 
was  Jehovah. 

It  is  true  that  the  Assyrian  Empire  was  not  construc- 
tive, like  the  Roman,  and,  therefore,  could  not  assist 
the  prophets  to  the  idea  of  a  Catholic  Church.  But 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  did  assist  them  to  a 
feeling  of  the  moral  unity  of  mankind.  A  great  his- 
torian has  made  the  just  remark  that,  whatsoever 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  ASSYRIA  UPON  PROPHECY  55 


widens  the  imagination,  enabling  it  to  realise  the 
actual  experience  of  other  men,  is  a  powerful  agent 
of  ethical  advance.^  Now  Assyria  widened  the  imagi- 
nation and  the  sympathy  of  Israel  in  precisely  this 
way.  Consider  the  universal  Pity  of  the  Assyrian 
conquest :  how  state  after  state  went  down  before  it, 
how  all  things  mortal  yielded  and  were  swept  away. 
The  mutual  hatreds  and  ferocities  of  men  could  not 
persist  before  a  common  Fate,  so  sublime,  so  tragic. 
And  thus  we  understand  how  in  Israel  the  old  envies 
and  rancours  of  that  border  warfare  with  her  foes  which 
had  filled  the  last  four  centuries  of  her  history  is 
replaced  by  a  new  tenderness  and  compassion  towards 
the  national  efforts,  the  achievements  and  all  the  busy 
life  of  the  Gentile  peoples.  Isaiah  is  especially  dis- 
tinguished by  this  in  his  treatment  of  Egypt  and  of 
Tyre  ;  and  even  where  he  and  others  do  not,  as  in 
these  cases,  appreciate  the  sadness  of  the  destruction 
of  so  much  brave  beauty  and  serviceable  wealth,  their 
tone  in  speaking  of  the  fall  of  the  Assyrian  on  their 
neighbours  is  one  of  compassion  and  not  of  exultation.* 
As  the  rivalries  and  hatreds  of  individual  lives  are 
stilled  in  the  presence  of  a  common  death,  so  even  that 
factious,  ferocious  world  of  the  Semites  ceased  to  fret  its 
anger  and  watch  it  for  ever  (to  quote  Amos'  phrase)  in 
face  of  the  universal  Assyrian  Fate.  But  in  that  Fate 
there  was  more  than  Pity.  On  the  data  of  the  prophets 
Assyria  was  afflicting  Israel  for  moral  reasons  :  it  could 
not  be  for  other  reasons  that  she  was  afflicting  their 
neighbours.    Israel  and  the  heathen  were  sufliering  for 

'  Lecky :  History  of  European  Morals,  I. 

•  The  present  writer  has  already  pointed  out  this  with  regard  to 
Egypt  and  Phujuicia  in  Isaiah  (Expositor's  Bible  Series),  I.,  Chaps. 
XXII.  and  XXIII,,  and  with  regard  to  Philistia  in  Hist,  Geog.,  p.  17&, 


56 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


the  same  righteousness*  sake.  What  could  have  better 
illustrated  the  moral  equality  of  all  mankind  I  No 
doubt  the  prophets  were  already  theoretically  con- 
vinced ^  of  this — for  the  righteousness  they  believed 
in  was  nothing  if  not  universal.  But  it  is  one  thing  to 
hold  a  belief  on  principle  and  another  to  have  practical 
experience  of  it  in  history.  To  a  theory  of  the  moral 
equality  of  mankind  Assyria  enabled  the  prophets  to 
add  sympathy  and  conscience.  We  shall  see  all  this 
illustrated  in  the  opening  prophecies  of  Amos  against 
the  foreign  nations. 

But  Assyria  did  not  help  to  develop  monotheism  in 
Israel  only  by  contributing  to  the  doctrines  of  a  moral 
Providence  and  of  the  equality  of  all  men  beneath  it. 
The  influence  must  have  extended  to  Israel's  conception 
of  God  in  Nature.  Here,  of  course,  Israel  was  already 
possessed  of  great  beliefs.  Jehovah  had  created  man ; 
He  had  divided  the  Red  Sea  and  Jordan.  The  desert, 
the  storm,  and  the  seasons  were  all  subject  to  Him. 
But  at  a  time  when  the  superstitious  mind  of  the 
people  was  still  feeling  after  other  Divine  powers  in 
the  earth,  the  waters  and  the  air  of  Canaan,  it  was  a 
very  valuable  antidote  to  such  dissipation  of  their  faith 
to  find  one  God  swaying,  through  Assyria,  all  families 
of  mankind.  The  Divine  unity  to  which  history  was 
reduced  must  have  reacted  on  Israel's  views  of  Nature, 
and  made  it  easier  to  feel  one  God  also  there.  Now,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  imagination  of  the  unity  of  Nature, 
the  belief  in  a  reason  and  method  pervading  all  things, 


*  I  put  it  this  way  only  for  the  sake  of  making  the  logic  clear ;  for 
It  is  a  mistake  to  say  that  the  prophets  at  ^y  time  held  merely 
theoretic  convictions.  All  their  conviction  was  really  experimental — 
never  held  apart  from  some  illustration  or  proof  of  principle  in 
actual  history. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  ASSYRIA  UPON  PROPHECY  57 


was  very  powerfully  advanced  in  Israel  throughout  the 
Assyrian  period. 

We  may  find  an  illustration  of  this  in  the  greater, 
deeper  meaning  in  which  the  prophets  use  the  old 
national  name  of  Israel's  God — Jehovah  Seba'oth, 
Jehovah  of  Hosts.  This  title,  which  came  into  frequent 
use  under  the  early  kings,  when  Israel's  vocation  was 
to  win  freedom  by  war,  meant  then  (as  far  as  we  can 
gather)  only  Jehovah  of  the  armies  of  Israel — the  God 
of  battles,  the  people's  leader  in  war,^  whose  home  was 
Jerusalem,  the  people's  capital,  and  His  sanctuary  their 
battle  emblem,  the  Ark.  Now  the  prophets  hear 
Jehovah  go  forth  (as  Amos  does)  from  the  same  place, 
but  to  them  the  Name  has  a  far  deeper  significance. 
They  never  define  it,  but  they  use  it  in  associations 
where  hosts  must  mean  something  different  from  the 

'  niX3V  nin^:  l  Sam.  i.  3;  iv.  4;  xvii.  45,  where  it  is  explained  by 
the  parallel  phrase  God  of  the  armies  of  Israel)  2  Sam.  vi.  2,  where  it 
is  connected  with  Israel's  battle  emblem,  the  Ark  (cf.  Jer.  xxii.  18)  ; 
and  so  throughout  Samuel  and  Kings,  and  also  Chronicles,  the 
Psalms,  and  most  prophets.  The  plural  niXIl^  is  never  used  in 
the  Old  Testament  except  of  human  hosts,  and  generally  of  the 
armies  or  hosts  of  Israel.  The  theory  therefore  which  sees  the 
same  meaning  in  the  Divine  title  is  probably  the  correct  one.  It  was 
first  put  forward  by  Herder  (Get'si  der  Eb.  Poesie^  ii.  84,  85),  and  aft<er 
some  neglect  it  has  been  revived  by  Kautzsch  (Z.  A,  T,  JV.f  vi.  flf.)  and 
Stade  (Gesch.f  i.  437,  n,  3).  The  alternatives  are  that  the  hosts  origin- 
ally meant  those  of  heaven,  either  the  angels  (so,  among  others, 
Ewald,  Hist.f  Eng.  Ed.,  iii.  62)  or  the  stars  (so  Delitzsch,  Kuenen, 
Baudissin,  Cheyne,  Prophecies  of  Isaiah,  i.  ii).  In  the  former  of  these 
two  there  is  some  force  ;  but  the  reason  given  for  the  latter,  that  the 
name  came  to  the  front  in  Israel  when  the  people  were  being  drawn 
into  connection  with  star-worshipping  nations,  especially  Aram, 
seems  to  me  baseless.  Israel  had  not  been  long  in  touch  with  Aram 
in  Saul's  time,  yet  even  then  the  name  is  accepted  as  if  one  of  much 
earlier  origin.  A  clear  account  of  the  argument  on  the  other  side 
to  that  taken  in  this  note  will  be  found  in  Smend,  Altlestament* 
licht  Religionsgeschichte,  pp.  185  fif. 


58 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


armies  of  Israel.  To  Amos  the  hosts  of  Jehovah  are 
not  the  armies  of  Israel,  but  those  of  Assyria  :  they  are 
also  the  nations  whom  He  marshals  and  marches  across 
the  earth,  Philistines  from  Caphtor,  Aram  from  Qir,  as 
well  as  Israel  from  Egypt.  Nay,  more;  according  to 
those  Doxologies  which  either  Amos  or  a  kindred  spirit 
has  added  to  his  lofty  argument,^  Jehovah  sways  and 
orders  the  powers  of  the  heavens :  Orion  and  Pleiades, 
the  clouds  from  the  sea  to  the  mountain  peaks  where  they 
break,  day  and  night  in  constant  procession.  It  is  in 
associations  like  these  that  the  Name  is  used,  either  in 
its  old  form  or  slightly  changed  as  Jehovah  God  of  hosts, 
or  the  hosts;  and  we  cannot  but  feel  that  the  hosts 
of  Jehovah  are  now  looked  upon  as  all  the  influences 
of  earth  and  heaven — human  armies,  stars  and  powers 
of  nature,  which  obey  His  word  and  work  His  will. 


*  See  below,  Chap.  XL 


AMOS 


59 


t 


"Towers  in   the  distance,  like  an  earth-bom  Atlas  ,  .  such 

fi  man  in  such  a  historical  position,  standing  on  the  confines  of  light 
and  darkness,  like  day  on  the  misty  mountain-tops." 


9o 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  BOOK  OF  AMOS 

THE  genuineness  of  the  bulk  of  the  Book  of  Amos 
is  not  doubted  by  any  critic.  The  only  passages 
suspected  as  interpolations  are  the  three  references  to 
Judah,  the  three  famous  outbreaks  in  praise  of  the 
might  of  Jehovah  the  Creator,  the  final  prospect  of  a 
hope  that  does  not  gleam  in  any  other  part  of  the  book, 
with  a  few  clauses  alleged  to  reflect  a  stage  of  history 
later  than  that  in  which  Amos  worked.^  In  all,  these 
verses  amount  to  only  twenty-six  or  twenty-seven  out 
of  one  hundred  and  forty-six.  Each  of  them  can  be 
discussed  separately  as  we  reach  it,  and  we  may  now 
pass  to  consider  the  general  course  of  the  prophecy 
which  is  independent  of  them. 

The  Book  of  Amos  consists  of  Three  Groups  of 
Oracles,  under  one  title,  which  is  evidently  meant  to 
cover  them  all. 

The  title  runs  as  follows  : — 

Words  of  'Amos — who  was  of  the  herdsmen  of 
Tekod — ivhich  he  saw  concerning  Israel  in  the  days 

*  The  full  list  of  suspected  passages  is  this :  (i)  References  to 
Judah— ii.  4,  5;  vi.  I,  in  Zion;  ix.  ii,  12.  (2)  The  three  Outbreaks 
of  Praise— iv.  13;  v.  8,  9;  ix.  5,  6.  (3)  The  Final  Hope— ix.  8-15, 
including  vv.  1 1,  12,  already  mentioned.  (4)  Clauses  alleged  to  reflect 
a  later  stage  of  history— i.  9-12 ;  v.  I,  2,  15  ;  vi.  3,  14,  (5)  Suspected 
for  incorapatibiHty — viii.  11-13. 

61 


/ 


62 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


of  *Uzziah  king  of  Judah^  and  in  the  days  of 
JaraUam  son  of  Joash^  king  of  Israel :  two  years 
before  the  earthquake. 
The  Three  Sections,  with  their  contents,  are  as 
follows : — 

First  Section  :  Chaps.  I.,  II.  The  Heathen's 
Crimes  and  Israel's. 

A  series  ot  short  oracles  of  the  same  form,  directed  impartially 
against  the  political  crimes  of  all  the  states  of  Palestine,  and 
culminating  in  a  more  detailed  denunciation  of  the  social  evils  of 
Israel,  whose  doom  is  foretold,  beneath  the  same  flood  of  war  as 
shall  overwhelm  all  her  neighbours. 

Second  Section  :  Chaps.  III. — VI.  Israel's 
Crimes  and  Doom. 

A  series  of  various  oracles  of  denunciation,  which  have  no 
further  logical  connection  than  is  supplied  by  a  general  sameness 
of  subject,  and  a  perceptible  increase  of  detail  and  articulateness 
from  beginning  to  end  of  the  section.  They  are  usually  grouped 
according  to  the  recurrence  of  the  formula  Hear  this  word^  whic?i 
stands  at  the  head  of  our  present  chaps,  iii.,  iv.  and  v. ;  and  by 
the  two  cries  of  Woe  at  v.  i8  and  vi,  i.  But  even  more  obvious 
than  these  commencements  are  the  various  cHmaxes  to  which 
they  lead  up.  These  are  all  threats  of  judgment,  and  each  is 
more  strenuous  or  explicit  than  the  one  that  has  preceded  it. 
They  close  with  iii.  15,  iv.  3,  iv.  12,  v.  17,  v.  27  and  vi.  14;  and 
according  to  them  the  oracles  may  be  conveniently  divided  into 
six  groups. 

I.  III.  1-15.  After  the  main  theme  of  judgment  is  stated 
in  I,  2,  we  have  in  3-8  a  parenthesis  on  the  prophet's  right 
to  threaten  doom;  after  which  9-15,  following  directly  on  2, 
emphasise  the  social  disorder,  threaten  the  land  with  invasion, 
the  people  with  extinction  and  the  overthrow  of  their  civilisation. 


*  So  designated  to  distinguish  him  from  the  first  Jeroboam,  the  son 
of  Nebat 


THE  BOOK  OF  AMOS 


63 


2.  IV.  1-3,  beginning  with  the  formula  Hear  this  word^  is 
directed  against  women  and  describes  the  siege  of  the  capital 
and  their  captivity. 

3.  IV.  4-12,  with  no  opening  formula,  contrasts  the  people's 
vain  propitiation  of  God  by  ritual  with  His  treatment  of  them 
by  various  physical  chastisements — drought,  blight  and  locusts, 
pestilence,  earthquake — and  summons  them  to  prepare  for 
another,  unnamed,  visitation.  Jehovah  God  of  Hosts  is  His 
Name, 

4.  V.  1-17,  beginning  with  the  formula  Hear  this  word^  and 
a  dirge  over  a  vision  of  the  nation's  defeat,  attacks,  like  the 
previous  group,  the  lavish  ritual,  sets  in  contrast  to  it  Jehovah's 
demands  for  justice  and  civic  purity;  and,  offering  a  reprieve 
if  Israel  will  repent,  closes  with  the  prospect  of  an  universal 
mourning  (vv.  16,  17),  which,  though  introduced  by  a  therefore, 
has  no  logical  connection  with  what  precedes  it. 

5.  V.  18-26  is  the  first  of  the  two  groups  that  open  with  Woe, 
Affirming  that  the  eagerly  expected  Day  of  Jehovah  will  be  dark- 
ness and  disaster  on  disaster  inevitable  (18-20),  it  again  emphasises 
Jehovah's  desire  for  righteousness  rather  than  worship  (21-26), 
and  closes  with  the  threat  of  captivity  beyond  Damascus. 
Jehovah  God  of  Hosts  is  His  Name,  as  at  the  close  of  3. 

6.  VL  I- 14.  The  second  Woe,  on  them  that  are  at  ease  i?i 
Zion  (i,  2):  a  satire  on  the  luxuries  of  the  rich  and  their  in- 
difference to  the  national  suffering  (3-6):  captivity  must  come, 
with  the  desolation  of  the  land  (9,  10) ;  and  in  a  peroration  the 
prophet  reiterates  a  general  downfall  of  the  nation  because  of 
its  perversity.  A  Nation — needless  to  name  it ! — will  oppress 
Israel  from  Hamath  to  the  River  of  the  Arabah. 

Third  Section  :  Chaps.  VII. — IX.  Visions  with 
Interludes. 

The  Visions  betray  traces  of  development ;  but  they  are  inter- 
rupted by  a  piece  of  narrative  and  addresses  on  the  same  themes 
as  chaps,  iii. — vi.  The  First  two  Visions  (vii.  1-6)  are  of 
disasters — locusts  and  drought — in  the  realm  of  nature ;  they  are 
averted  by  prayer  from  Amos.  The  Third  (7-9)  is  in  the  sphere, 
not  of  nature,  but  history  :  Jehovah  standing  with  a  plumbline, 
as  if  to  sliow  the  nation's  fabric  to  be  utterly  twisted,  announces 
that  it  shall  be  overthrown,  and  that  the  dynasty  of  Jeroboam 


64 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


must  be  put  to  the  sword.  Upon  this  mention  of  the  king,  the  first 
in  the  book,  there  starts  the  narrative  (10-17)  of  how  Amaziah, 
priest  at  Bethel — obviously  upon  hearing  the  prophet's  threat — 
sent  word  to  Jeroboam ;  and  then  (whether  before  or  after 
getting  a  reply)  proceeded  to  silence  Amos,  who,  however, 
reiterates  his  prediction  of  doom,  again  described  as  captivity  in  a 
foreign  land,  and  adds  a  Fourth  Vision  (viii.  1-3),  of  the  Kaits 
or  Summer  Fruity  which  suggests  KSts,  or  End  of  the  Nation. 
Here  it  would  seem  Amos'  discourses  at  Bethel  take  end.  Then 
comes  viii.  4-6,  another  exposure  of  the  sins  of  the  rich  ;  followed 
by  a  triple  pronouncement  of  doom  (7),  again  in  the  terms  of 
physical  calamities — earthquake  (8),  eclipse  (9,  10),  and  famine 
(11-14),  in  the  last  of  which  the  public  worship  is  again  attacked- 
A  Fifth  Vision,  of  the  Lord  by  the  Altar  commanding  to  smite 
(ix.  i),  is  followed  by  a  powerful  threat  of  the  hopelessness  of 
escape  from  God's  punishment  (ix.  1^-4);  the  third  of  the  great 
apostrophes  to  the  might  of  Jehovah  (5,  6);  another  statement  of 
the  equality  in  judgment  of  Israel  with  other  peoples,  and  of  their 
utter  destruction  (j-2>a).  Then  (^b)  we  meet  the  first  qualification 
of  the  hitherto  unrelieved  sentence  of  death.  Captivity  is  de- 
scribed, not  as  doom,  but  as  discipline  (9) :  the  sinners  of  the 
people,  scoffers  at  doom,  shall  die  (10).  And  this  seems  to  leave 
room  for  two  final  oracles  of  restoration  and  glory,  the  only  two 
in  the  book,  which  are  couched  in  the  exact  terms  of  the  promises 
of  later  prophecy  (11-15)  and  are  by  many  denied  to  Amos. 

Such  is  the  course  of  the  prophesying  of  Amos.  To 
have  traced  it  must  have  made  clear  to  us  the  unity  of 
his  book/  as  well  as  the  character  of  the  period  to  which 
he  belonged.  But  it  also  furnishes  us  with  a  good  deal 
of  evidence  towards  the  answer  of  such  necessary 
questions  as  these — whether  we  can  fix  an  exact  date 
for  the  whole  or  any  part,  and  whether  we  can  trace  any 
logical  or  historical  development  through  the  chapters, 
either  as  these  now  stand,  or  in  some  such  re-arrange- 
ment as  we  saw  to  be  necessary  for  the  authentic 
prophecies  of  Isaiah. 


Apart  from  the  suspected  parentheses  already  mentioned. 


THE  BOOK  OF  AMOS 


65 


Let  us  take  first  the  simplest  of  these  tasks — to  ascer- 
tain the  general  period  of  the  book.  Twice — by  the  title 
and  by  the  portion  of  narrative  ^ — we  are  pointed  to  the 
reign  of  Jeroboam  II.,  circa  783 — 743  ;  other  historical 
allusions  suit  the  same  years.  The  principalities  of 
Palestine  are  all  standing,  except  Gath ;  ^  but  the  great 
northern  cloud  which  carries  their  doom  has  nsen  and 
is  ready  to  burst.  Now  Assyria,  we  have  seen,  had 
become  fatal  to  Palestine  as  early  as  854.  Infrequent 
invasions  of  Syria  had  followed,  in  one  of  which,  in 
803,  Rimmon  Nirari  III,  had  subjected  Tyre  and 
Sidon,  besieged  Damascus,  and  received  tribute  from 
Israel.  So  far  then  as  the  Assyrian  data  are  concerned, 
the  Book  of  Amos  might  have  been  written  early  in  the 
reign  of  Jeroboam.  Even  then  was  the  storm  lowering 
as  he  describes  it.  Even  then  had  the  lightning  broken 
over  Damascus.  There  are  other  symptoms,  however, 
which  demand  a  later  date.  They  seem  to  imply,  not 
only  Uzziah's  overthrow  of  Gath,^  and  Jeroboam's  con- 
quest of  Moab  *  and  of  Aram,^  but  that  establishment  of 
Israel's  political  influence  from  Lebanon  to  the  Dead 
Sea,  which  must  have  taken  Jeroboam  several  years 
to  accomplish.  With  this  agree  other  features  of  the 
prophecy — the  sense  of  pohtical  security  in  Israel,  the 


'  Chap.  viL 

■  And,  if  vi.  2  be  genuine,  Hamath. 

*  2  Chron.  xxvi.  6.  In  the  list  of  the  Philistine  cities,  Amos  i.  6-«8, 
Gath  does  not  occur,  and  in  harmony  with  this  in  vi.  2  it  is  said  to 
be  overthrown;  see  pp.  173  f. 

*  2  Kings.  In  Amos  ii.  3  the  ruler  of  Moab  is  called,  not  king,  but 
tDDI^,  or  regent,  such  as  Jeroboam  substituted  for  the  king  of  Moab. 

*  According  to  Gratz's  emendation  of  vi.  13  :  we  have  taken  Lo-Debar 
and Karnat'm.  Perhaps  too  in  iii.  12,  though  the  verse  is  very  obscure, 
•ome  settlement  of  Israelites  in  Damascus  is  implied.  For  Jeroboam's 
conquest  of  Aram  (2  Kings  xiv.  28),  see  p.  177. 

VOL.  L  C 


66 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


large  increase  of  wealth,  the  ample  and  luxurious 
buildings,  the  gorgeous  ritual,  the  easy  ability  to 
recover  from  physical  calamities,  the  consequent  care- 
lessness and  pride  of  the  upper  classes.  All  these 
things  imply  that  the  last  Syrian  invasions  of  Israel  in 
the  beginning  of  the  century  were  at  least  a  generation 
behind  the  men  into  whose  careless  faces  the  prophet 
hurled  his  words  of  doom.  During  this  interval  Assyria 
had  again  advanced — in  775,  in  773  and  in  772.*  None 
of  these  expeditions,  however,  had  come  south  of 
Damascus,  and  this,  their  invariable  arrest  at  some 
distance  from  the  proper  territory  of  Israel,  may  have 
further  flattered  the  people's  sense  of  security,  though 
probably  the  truth  was  that  Jeroboam,  like  some  of  his 
predecessors,  bought  his  peace  by  tribute  to  the  emperor. 
In  765,  when  the  Assyrians  for  the  second  time  invaded 
Hadrach,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Damascus,  their 
records  mention  a  pestilence,  which,  both  because  their 
armies  were  then  in  Syria,  and  because  the  plague 
generally  spreads  over  the  whole  of  Western  Asia,  may 
well  have  been  the  pestilence  mentioned  by  Amos.  In 
763  a  total  eclipse  of  the  sun  took  place,  and  is  perhaps 
implied  by  the  ninth  verse  of  his  eighth  chapter.  If 
this  double  allusion  to  pestilence  and  eclipse  be  correct, 
it  brings  the  book  down  to  the  middle  of  the  century 
and  the  latter  half  of  Jeroboam's  long  reign.  In  755 
the  Assyrians  came  back  to  Hadrach;  in  754  to  Arpad  : 
with  these  exceptions  Syria  was  untroubled  by  them 
till  after  745.  It  was  probably  these  quiet  years  in 
which  Amos  found  Israel  at  ease  in  Zion}    If  we 


'  In  775  to  Erini,  **the  country  of  the  cedars" — that  is,  Mount 
Amanus,  near  the  Gulf  of  Anticch ;  in  773  to  Damascus;  in  772  to 
Hadrach.  *vi  I, 


THE  BOOK  OF  AMOS 


67 


went  down  further,  within  the  more  forward  policy  of 
Tiglath-Pileser,  who  ascended  the  throne  in  745  and 
besieged  Arpad  from  743  to  740,  we  should  find  an 
occasion  for  the  urgency  with  which  Amos  warns 
Israel  that  the  invasion  of  her  land  and  the  overthrow 
of  the  dynasty  of  Jeroboam  will  be  immediate.^  But 
Amos  might  have  spoken  as  urgently  even  before 
Tiglath-Pileser's  accession  ;  and  the  probability  that 
Hosea,  who  prophesied  within  Jeroboam^s  reign,  quotes 
from  Amos  seems  to  imply  that  the  prophecies  of  the 
latter  had  been  current  for  some  time. 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century — is,  there- 
fore, the  most  definite  date  to  which  we  are  able  to 
assign  the  Book  of  Amos.  At  so  great  a  distance  the 
difference  of  a  few  unmarked  years  is  invisible.  It  is 
enough  that  we  know  the  moral  dates — the  state  of 
national  feeling,  the  personages  alive,  the  great  events 
which  are  behind  the  prophet,  and  the  still  greater 
which  are  imminent.  We  can  see  that  Amos  wrote  in 
the  political  pride  of  the  latter  years  of  Jeroboam's 
reign,  after  the  pestilence  and  eclipse  of  the  sixties, 
and  before  the  advance  of  Tiglath-Pileser  in  the  last 
forties,  of  the  eighth  century. 

A  particular  year  is  indeed  offered  by  the  title  of  the 
book,  which,  if  not  by  Amos  himself,  must  be  from  only 
a  few  years  later:*  Words  of  Amos ^  which  he  saw  in 
the  days  of  Uzziah  and  of  Jeroboam^  two  years  before  the 
earthquake.  This  was  the  great  earthquake  of  which 
other  prophets  speak  as  having  happened  in  the  days 


'  vii.  9. 

•  Even  KOnig  denies  that  the  title  is  from  Amos  {Einleihing^  307)  ; 
yet  the  ground  on  which  he  does  so,  the  awkwardness  of  the  double 
relative,  does  not  appear  sufficient.  One  does  not  write  a  title  in  the 
same  style  as  an  ordinary  sentence. 


68 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


of  Uzziah.^  But  we  do  not  know  where  to  place  the 
year  of  the  earthquake,  and  are  as  far  as  ever  from  a 
definite  date. 

The  mention  of  the  earthquake,  however,  introduces 
us  to  the  answer  of  another  of  our  questions — whether, 
with  all  its  unity,  the  Book  of  Amos  reveals  any  lines 
of  progress,  either  of  event  or  of  idea,  either  historical 
or  logical. 

Granting  the  truth  of  the  title,  that  Amos  had  his 
prophetic  eyes  opened  two  years  before  the  earthquake, 
it  will  be  a  sign  of  historical  progress  if  we  find  in  the 
book  itself  any  allusions  to  the  earthquake.  Now  these 
are  present.  In  the  first  division  we  find  none,  unless 
the  threat  of  God's  visitation  in  the  form  of  a  shaking 
of  the  land  be  considered  as  a  tremor  communi- 
cated to  the  prophet's  mind  from  the  recent  upheaval. 
But  in  the  second  division  there  is  an  obvious  reference  : 
the  last  of  the  unavailing  chastisements,  with  which 
Jehovah  has  chastised  His  people,  is  described  as  a 
great  overturning}  And  in  the  third  division,  in  two 
passages,  the  judgment,  which  Amos  has  already  stated 
will  fall  in  the  form  of  an  invasion,  is  also  figured  in 
the  terms  of  an  earthquake.  Nor  does  this  exhaust  the 
tremors  which  that  awful  convulsion  had  started ;  but 
throughout  the  second  and  third  divisions  there  is  a 
constant  sense  of  instability,  of  the  liftableness  and 
breakableness  of  the  very  ground  of  life.  Of  course,  as 
we  shall  see,  this  was  due  to  the  prophet's  knowledge 
of  the  moral  explosiveness  of  society  in  Israel ;  but  he 
could  hardly  have  described  the  results  of  that  in  the 
terms  he  has  used,  unless  himself  and  his  hearers  had 
recently  felt  the  ground  quake  under  them,  and  seen 


}  Zech,  xiv.  5,  and  probably  Isa.  ix,  9,  10  (Eng.),  ■  iv.  II. 


THE  BOOK  OF  AMOS 


69 


whole  cities  topple  over.  If,  then,  Amos  began  to 
prophesy  two  years  before  the  earthquake,  the  bulk  of 
his  book  was  spoken,  or  at  least  written  down,  after  the 
earthquake  had  left  all  Israel  trembling.* 

This  proof  of  progress  in  the  book  is  confirmed  by 
another  feature.  In  the  abstract  given  above  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  the  judgments  of  the  Lord  upon  Israel 
were  of  a  twofold  character.  Some  were  physical — 
famine,  drought,  blight,  locusts,  earthquake  ;  and  some 
were  political — battle,  defeat,  invasion,  captivity.  Now 
it  is  significant — and  I  do  not  think  the  point  has  been 
previously  remarked — that  not  only  are  the  physical 
represented  as  happening  first,  but  that  at  one  time 
the  prophet  seems  to  have  understood  that  no  others 
would  be  needed,  that  indeed  God  did  not  reveal  to 
him  the  imminence  of  political  disaster  till  He  had 
exhausted  the  discipline  of  physical  calamities.  For 
this  we  have  double  evidence.  In  chapter  iv.  Amos 
reports  that  the  Lord  has  sought  to  rouse  Israel  out 
of  the  moral  lethargy  into  which  their  religious  services 
have  soothed  them,  by  withholding  bread  and  water ; 


'  Of  course  it  is  always  possible  to  suspect — and  let  us  by  all 
means  exhaust  the  possibilities  of  suspicion — that  the  title  has  been 
added  by  a  scribe,  who  interpreted  the  forebodings  of  judgment 
which  Amos  expresses  in  the  terms  of  earthquake  as  if  they  were  the 
predictions  of  a  real  earthquake,  and  was  anxious  to  show,  by  insert- 
ing the  title,  how  they  were  fulfilled  in  the  great  convulsion  of 
Uzziah's  days.  But  to  such  a  suspicion  we  have  a  complete  answer. 
No  later  scribe,  who  understood  the  book  he  was  dealing  with,  would 
have  prefixed  to  it  a  title,  with  the  motive  just  suspected,  when  in 
chap.  iv.  he  read  that  an  earthquake  had  just  taken  place.  The  very 
fact  that  such  a  title  appears  over  a  book,  which  speaks  of  the  earth- 
quake as  past,  surely  attests  the  bona  fides  of  the  title.  With  that 
mention  in  chap.  iv.  of  the  earthquake  as  past,  none  would  have 
ventured  to  say  that  Amos  began  to  prophesy  before  the  earthquake 
unless  they  had  known  this  to  be  the  case. 


70 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


by  blighting  their  orchards;  by  a  pestilence,  a  thoroughly 
Egyptian  one ;  and  by  an  earthquake.  But  these 
having  failed  to  produce  repentance,  God  must  visit  the 
people  once  more :  how,  the  prophet  does  not  say, 
leaving  the  imminent  terror  unnamed,  but  we  know 
that  the  Assyrian  overthrow  is  meant.  Now  precisely 
parallel  to  this  is  the  course  of  the  Visions  in  chapter 
vii.  The  Lord  caused  Amos  to  see  (whether  in  fancy 
or  in  fact  we  need  not  now  stop  to  consider)  the  plague 
of  locusts.  It  was  so  bad  as  to  threaten  Israel  with 
destruction.  But  Amos  interceded,  and  God  answered, 
//  shall  not  be.  Similarly  with  a  plague  of  drought. 
But  then  the  Vision  shifts  from  the  realm  of  nature  to 
that  of  politics.  The  Lord  sets  the  plumbline  to  the 
fabric  of  Israelis  life  :  this  is  found  hopelessly  bent  and 
unstable.  It  must  be  pulled  down,  and  the  pulling 
down  shall  be  political :  the  family  of  Jeroboam  is  to 
be  slain,  the  people  are  to  go  into  captivity.  The 
next  Vision,  therefore,  is  of  the  End — the  Final  Judg- 
ment of  war  and  defeat,  which  is  followed  only  by 
Silence. 

Thus,  by  a  double  proof,  we  see  not  only  that  the 
Divine  method  in  that  age  was  to  act  first  by  physical 
chastisement,  and  only  then  by  an  inevitable,  ultimate 
doom  of  war  and  captivity ;  but  that  the  experience 
of  Amos  himself,  his  own  intercourse  with  the  Lord, 
passed  through  these  two  stages.  The  significance  of 
this  for  the  picture  of  the  prophet^s  life  we  shall  see 
in  our  next  chapter.  Here  we  are  concerned  to  ask 
whether  it  gives  us  any  clue  as  to  the  extant  arrange- 
ment of  his  prophecies,  or  any  justification  for  re- 
arranging them,  as  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  have  to 
be  re-arranged,  according  to  the  various  stages  of 
historical  development  at  which  they  were  uttered. 


THE  BOOK  OF  AMOS 


71 


We  have  just  seen  that  the  progres€  from  the 
physical  chastisements  to  the  political  doom  is  reflected 
in  both  the  last  two  sections  of  the  book.  But  the 
same  gradual,  cumulative  method  is  attributed  to  the 
Divine  Providence  by  the  First  Section :  for  three 
transgressions^  yea^  for  four^  I  will  not  turn  it  back ;  and 
then  follow  the  same  disasters  of  war  and  captivity  as 
are  threatened  in  Sections  II.  and  III.  But  each 
section  does  not  only  thus  end  similarly;  each  also 
begins  with  the  record  of  an  immediate  impression 
made  on  the  prophet  by  Jehovah  (chaps,  l  2 ;  iii. 
3-8;  vii.  1-9). 

To  sum  up : — The  Book  of  Amos  consists  of  three 
sections,  which  seem  to  have  received  their  present 
form  towards  the  end  of  Jeroboam's  reign  ;  and  which, 
after  emphasising  their  origin  as  due  to  the  immediate 
influence  of  Jehovah  Himself  on  the  prophet,  follow 
pretty  much  the  same  cowrse  of  the  Divine  dealings  with 
that  generation  of  Israel — a  course  which  began  with 
physical  chastisements,  that  failed  to  produce  re- 
pentance, and  ended  with  the  irrevocable  threat  of  the 
Assyrian  invasion.  Each  section,  that  is  to  say,  starts 
from  the  same  point,  follows  much  the  same  direction, 
and  arrives  at  exactly  the  same  conclusion.  Chrono- 
logically you  cannot  put  one  of  them  before  the 
other ;  but  from  each  it  is  possible  to  learn  the  stages 
of  experience  through  which  Amos  himself  passed — to 
discover  how  God  taught  the  prophet,  not  only  by  the 
original  intuitions  from  which  all  prophecy  starts,  but 
by  the  gradual  events  of  his  day  both  at  home  and 
abroad. 


*  Except  for  the  later  additions,  not  by  Amos,  to  be  afterwards 
noted. 


72 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


This  decides  our  plan  for  us.  We  shall  first  trace 
the  life  and  experience  of  Amos,  as  his  book  enables  us 
to  do ;  and  then  we  shall  examine,  in  the  order  in 
which  they  lie,  the  three  parallel  forms  in  which,  when 
he  was  silenced  at  Bethel,  he  collected  the  fruits  of 
that  experience,  and  gave  them  their  final  expression. 

The  style  of  the  book  is  simple  and  terse.  The 
fixity  of  the  prophet's  aim — upon  a  few  moral  principles 
and  the  doom  they  demand — keeps  his  sentences  firm 
and  sharp,  and  sends  his  paragraphs  rapidly  to  their 
climax.  That  he  sees  nature  only  under  moral  light 
renders  his  poetry  austere  and  occasionally  savage. 
His  language  is  very  pure.  There  is  no  ground  for 
Jerome's  charge  that  he  was  imperitus  sermone  " :  we 
shall  have  to  notice  only  a  few  irregularities  in  speUing, 
due  perhaps  to  the  dialect  of  the  deserts  in  which  he 
passed  his  life.* 

The  text  of  the  book  is  for  the  most  part  well- 
preserved;  but  there  are  a  number  of  evident  cor- 
ruptions. Of  the  Greek  Version  the  same  holds  good 
as  we  have  said  in  more  detail  of  the  Greek  of  Hosea.* 
It  is  sometimes  correct  where  the  Hebrew  text  is  not, 
sometimes  suggestive  of  the  emendations  required,  and 
sometimes  hopelessly  astray. 

*Cf;  ii.  13;  V.  II.;  vi.  8,  10;  vii.  9,  16;  viii.  8  (?>, 
*  See  below,  p.  2ai» 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET 

THE  Book  of  Amos  opens  one  of  the  greatest 
stages  in  the  religious  development  of  mankind. 
Its  originality  is  due  to  a  few  simple  ideas,  which  it 
propels  into  religion  with  an  almost  unrelieved  abrupt- 
ness. But,  like  all  ideas  which  ever  broke  upon  the 
world,  these  also  have  flesh  and  blood  behind  them. 
Like  every  other  Reformation,  this  one  in  Israel  began 
with  the  conscience  and  the  protest  of  an  individual. 
Our  review  of  the  book  has  made  this  plain.  We  have 
found  in  it,  not  only  a  personal  adventure  of  a  heroic 
kind,  but  a  progressive  series  of  visions,  with  some  other 
proofs  of  a  development  both  of  facts  and  ideas.  In 
short,  behind  the  book  there  beats  a  life,  and  our  first 
duty  is  to  attempt  to  trace  its  spiritual  history.  The 
attempt  is  worth  the  greatest  care.  '*Amos,"  says  a 
very  critical  writer,^  is  one  of  the  most  wonderful 
appearances  in  the  history  of  the  human  spirit." 

I.  The  Man  and  His  Discipline. 

Amos  i.  i ;  iii.  3-8;  vii.  14,  15. 

When  charged  at  the  crisis  of  his  career  with  being 
but  a  hireling-prophet,  Amos  disclaimed  the  official 


'  Cornill:  Der  Israelitische  Prophetismus,  Five  Lectures  for  thi 
Educated  Laity.  1894. 

73 


74 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


name  and  took  his  stand  upon  his  work  as  a  man :  No 
prophet  /,  nor  prophets  son^  but  a  herdsman  and  a 
dresser  of  sycomores.  Jehovah  took  me  from  behind  the 
flock}  We  shall  enhance  our  appreciation  of  this  man- 
hood, and  of  the  new  order  of  prophecy  which  it 
asserted,  if  we  look  for  a  little  at  the  soil  on  which  it 
was  so  bravely  nourished. 

Six  miles  south  from  Bethlehem,  as  Bethlehem  is  six 
from  Jerusalem,  there  rises  on  the  edge  of  the  Judaean 
plateau,  towards  the  desert,  a  commanding  hill,  the 
ruins  on  which  are  still  known  by  the  name  of  Tek6a'.^ 

In  the  time  of  Amos  Tekoa  was  a  place  without 
sanctity  and  almost  without  tradition.  The  name  sug- 
gests that  the  site  may  at  first  have  been  that  of  a  camp. 
Its  fortification  by  Rehoboam,  and  the  mission  of  its 
wise  woman  to  David,  are  its  only  previous  appearances 
in  history.  Nor  had  nature  been  less  grudging  to  it 
than  fame.  The  men  of  Tekoa  looked  out  upon  a 
desolate  and  haggard  world.  South,  west  and  north 
the  view  is  barred  by  a  range  of  limestone  hills,  on  one 
of  which  directly  north  the  grey  towers  of  Jerusalem 
are  hardly  to  be  discerned  from  the  grey  mountain 
lines.  Eastward  the  prospect  is  still  more  desolate,  but 
it  is  open;  the  land  slopes  away  for  nearly  eighteen 


'  Amos  vii.  14.    See  further  pp.  76  f. 

«  Khurbet  Takua,  Hebrew  Tekoa,  rTpJ^l,  from  ypn,  to  blow  a 
trumpet  (cf.  Jer.  vi.  I,  Blow  the  trumpet  in  Tekoa)  or  to  pitch  a 
tent.  The  latter  seems  the  more  probable  derivation  of  the  name,  and 
suggests  a  nomadic  origin,  which  agrees  with  the  position  of  Tekoa 
on  the  borders  of  the  desert.  Tekoa  does  not  occur  in  the  list  of  the 
towns  taken  by  Joshua.  There  are  really  no  reasons  for  supposing 
that  some  other  Tekoa  is  meant.  The  two  that  have  been  alleged 
are  (l)  that  Amos  exclusively  refers  to  the  Northern  Kingdom,  (2)  that 
sycomores  do  not  grow  at  such  levels  as  Tekoa,  These  are  dealt  with 
on  pp.  79  and  77  respectively. 


THESMAN  AND  THE  PROPHET  75 


miles  to  a  depth  of  four  thousand  feet.  Of  this  long 
descent,  the  first  step,  lying  immediately  below  the  hill 
of  Tekoa,  is  a  shelf  of  stony  moorland  with  the  ruins 
of  vineyards.  It  is  the  lowest  ledge  of  the  settled  life 
of  Judaea.  The  eastern  edge  drops  suddenly  by  broken 
rocks  to  slopes  spotted  with  bushes  of  ''retem,"  the 
broom  of  the  desert,  and  with  patches  of  poor  wheat. 
From  the  foot  of  the  slopes  the  land  rolls  away  in  a 
maze  of  low  hills  and  shallow  dales,  that  flush  green  in 
spring,  but  for  the  rest  of  the  year  are  brown  with 
withered  grass  and  scrub.  This  is  the  Wilderness  or 
Pastureland  of  Tekoa^  across  which  by  night  the  wild 
beasts  howl,  and  by  day  the  blackened  sites  of  deserted 
camps,  with  the  loose  cairns  that  mark  the  nomads' 
graves,  reveal  a  human  life  almost  as  vagabond  and 
nameless  as  that  of  the  beasts.  Beyond  the  rolling 
land  is  Jeshimon,  or  Devastation — a  chaos  of  hills, 
none  of  whose  ragged  crests  are  tossed  as  high  as  the 
shelf  of  Tekoa,  while  their  flanks  shudder  down  some 
further  thousands  of  feet,  by  crumbling  precipices  and 
corries  choked  with  debris,  to  the  coast  of  the  Dead 
Sea.  The  northern  half  of  this  is  visible,  bright  blue 
against  the  red  wall  of  Moab,  and  the  level  top  of  the 
wall,  broken  only  by  the  valley  of  the  Arnon,  constitutes 
the  horizon.  Except  for  the  blue  water — which  shines 
in  its  gap  between  the  torn  hills  like  a  bit  of  sky 
through  rifted  clouds — it  is  a  very  dreary  world.  Yet 
the  sun  breaks  over  it,  perhaps  all  the  more  gloriously  ; 
mists,  rising  from  the  sea  simmering  in  its  great  vat, 
drape  the  nakedness  of  the  desert  noon  ;  and  through 
the  dry  desert  night  the  planets  ride  with  a  majesty 
they  cannot  assume  in  our  more  troubled  atmospheres. 


'  a  Chron.  xz.  ao. 


76 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


It  is  also  a  very  empty  and  a  very  silent  world,  yet 
every  stir  of  life  upon  it  excites,  therefore,  the  greater 
vigilance,  and  man's  faculties,  relieved  from  the  rush 
and  confusion  of  events,  form  the  instinct  of  marking, 
and  reflecting  upon,  every  single  phenomenon.  And  it 
is  a  very  savage  world.  Across  it  all,  the  towers  of 
Jerusalem  give  the  only  signal  of  the  spirit,  the  one 
token  that  man  has  a  history. 

Upon  this  unmitigated  wilderness,  where  life  is 
reduced  to  poverty  and  danger ;  where  nature  starves 
the  imagination,  but  excites  the  faculties  of  perception 
and  curiosity ;  with  the  mountain  tops  and  the  sunrise 
in  his  face,  but  above  all  with  Jerusalem  so  near, — 
Amos  did  the  work  which  made  him  a  man,  heard  the 
voice  of  God  calling  him  to  be  a  prophet,  and  gathered 
.those  symbols  and  figures  in  which  his  prophet's 
message  still  reaches  us  with  so  fresh  and  so  austere 
an  air. 

Amos  was  among  the  shepherds  of  Tekoa,  The  word 
for  shepherd  is  unusual,  and  means  the  herdsman  of  a 
peculiar  breed  of  desert  sheep,  still  under  the  same 
name  prized  in  Arabia  for  the  excellence  of  their  wool.^ 
And  he  was  a  dresser  of  sycomores.  The  tree,  which 
is  not  our  sycamore,  is  very  easily  grown  in  sandy 
soil  with  a  little  water.  It  reaches  a  great  height  and 
mass  of  foliage.  The  fruit  is  like  a  small  fig,  with  a 
sweet  but  watery  taste,  and  is  eaten  only  by  the  poor. 


'  n6ked,  is  doubtless  the  same  as  the  Arabic  **  nakkad,"  or 
keeper  of  the  "nakad,"  defined  by  Freytag  as  a  short-legged  and 
deformed  race  of  sheep  in  the  Bahrein  province  of  Arabia,  from 
which  comes  the  proverb  *'  viler  than  a  nakad  " ;  yet  the  wool  is  very 
fine.  The  king  of  Moab  is  called  Ipb  in  2  Kings  iii.  4  (A.V.  sheep^ 
master).  In  vii.  14  Amos  calls  himself  "IpIS^  cattleman^  which  thera 
is  no  reason  to  alter,  as  some  do,  to  Ijjli, 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET 


11 


Born  not  of  the  fresh  twigs,  but  of  the  trunk  and  older 
branches,  the  sluggish  lumps  are  provoked  to  ripen 
by  pinching  or  bruising,  which  seems  to  be  the  literal 
meaning  of  the  term  that  Amos  uses  of  himself — a 
ptncher  of  sycamores}  The  sycomore  does  not  grow 
at  so  high  a  level  as  Tekoa ;  ^  and  this  fact,  taken  along 
with  the  limitation  of  the  ministry  of  Amos  to  the 
Northern  Kingdom,  has  been  held  to  prove  that  he 
was  originally  an  Ephraimite,  a  sycomore-dresser,  who 
had  migrated  and  settled  down,  as  the  peculiar  phrase 
of  the  title  says,  among  the  shepherds  of  Tekoa}  We 
shall  presently  see,  however,  that  his  familiarity  with 
life  in  Northern  Israel  may  easily  have  been  won  in 
other  ways  than  through  citizenship  in  that  kingdom ; 
while  the  very  general  nature  of  the  definition,  among 
the  shepherds  of  Tekoa^  does  not  oblige  us  to  place 

*  D^13j  boles,  probably  from  a  root  (found  in  Ethiopia)  balas, 
a  fig)  hence  one  who  had  to  do  with  figs,  handled  them,  ripened 
them, 

'  The  Egyptian  sycomore,  Ficus  sycomorus^  is  not  found  in  Syria 
above  one  thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  while  Tekoa  is  more  than 
twice  as  high  as  that.  Cf.  I  Kings  x.  27,  the  sycamores  that  are 
in  the  vale  or  valley  land,  ppi?  j  i  Chron.  xxvii.  28,  the  sycamores  that 
are  in  the  low  plains.  "The  sycamore  grows  in  sand  on  the  edge 
of  the  desert  as  vigorously  as  in  the  midst  of  a  well-watered  country. 
Its  roots  go  deep  in  search  of  water,  which  infiltrates  as  far  as  the 
gorges  of  the  hills,  and  they  absorb  it  freely  even  where  drought 
seems  to  reign  supreme "  (Maspero  on  the  Egyptian  sycomore  : 
The  Dawn  of  Civilization,  translated  by  McClure,  p.  26).  "Every- 
where on  the  confines  of  cultivated  ground,  and  even  at  some 
distance  from  the  valley,  are  fine  single  sycamores  flourishing  as 
though  by  miracle  amid  the  sand.  .  .  .  They  drink  from  water,  which 
has  infiltrated  from  the  Nile,  and  whose  existence  is  nowise  betrayed 
upon  the  surface  of  the  soil"  (Jb.,  I2l).  Always  and  still  reverenced 
by  Moslem  and  Christian. 

■  So  practically  Oort  {Th,  Tjidsch.,  1891,  I2i  ff.),  when  compelled 
to  abandon  his  previous  conclusion  (16.,  1880,  122  if.)  that  the  Tekoa 
of  Amos  lay  in  Northern  Israel 


78 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


either  him  or  his  sycomores  so  high  as  the  village 
itself.  The  most  easterly  township  of  Judaea,  Tekoa 
commanded  the  whole  of  the  wilderness  beyond,  to 
which  indeed  it  gave  its  name,  the  wilderness  of  Tekoa. 
The  shepherds  of  Tekoa  were  therefore,  in  all  pro- 
bability, scattered  across  the  whole  region  down  to 
the  oases  on  the  coast  of  the  Dead  Sea,  which  have 
generally  been  owned  by  one  or  other  of  the  settled 
communities  in  the  hill-country  above,  and  may  at 
that  time  have  belonged  to  Tekoa,  just  as  in  Crusading 
times  they  belonged  to  the  monks  of  Hebron,  or  are 
to-day  cultivated  by  the  Rushaideh  Arabs,  who  pitch 
their  camps  not  far  from  Tekoa  itself.  As  you  will 
still  find  everywhere  on  the  borders  of  the  Syrian 
desert  shepherds  nourishing  a  few  fruit-trees  round 
the  chief  well  of  their  pasture,  in  order  to  vary  their 
milk  diet,  so  in  some  low  oasis  in  the  wilderness  of 
Judaea  Amos  cultivated  the  poorest,  but  the  most 
easily  grown  of  fruits,  the  sycomore.^  All  this  pushes 
Amos  and  his  dwarf  sheep  deeper  into  the  desert, 
and  emphasises  what  has  been  said  above,  and  still 
remains  to  be  illustrated,  of  the  desert's  influence  on 
his  discipline  as  a  man  and  on  his  speech  as  a  prophet. 
We  ought  to  remember  that  in  the  same  desert 
another  prophet  was  bred,  who  was  also  the  pioneer 
of  a  new  dispensation,  and  whose  ministry,  both  in  its 
strength  and  its  limitations,  is  much  recalled  by  the 
ministry  of  Amos.    John  the  son  of  Zacharias  grew 


*  In  1891  we  met  the  Rushaideh,  who  cultivate  Engedi, 
encamped  just  below  Tekoa.  But  at  other  parts  of  the  borders 
between  the  hill-country  of  Judaea  and  the  desert,  and  between 
Moab  and  the  desert,  we  found  round  most  of  the  herdsmen's 
central  wells  a  few  fig-trees  or  pomegranates,  or  even  apricots 
occasionally. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET 


79 


and  waxed  strong  in  spirit^  and  was  in  the  deserts  till  the 
day  of  his  showing  unto  Israel}  Here,  too,  our  Lord 
was  with  the  wild  beasts}  How  much  Amos  had  been 
with  them  may  be  seen  from  many  of  his  metaphors. 
The  lion  roarethj  who  shall  not  fear  ?  .  .  .  As  when  the 
shepherd  rescueth  from  the  mouth  of  the  lion  two  shin^ 
bones  or  a  bit  of  an  ear,  .  .  .  It  shall  be  as  when  one 
is  fleeing  from  a  lion^  and  a  bear  cometh  upon  him; 
and  he  entereth  a  house^  and  leaneth  his  hand  on  the 
wallf  and  a  serpent  biteth  him. 

As  a  wool-grower,  however,  Amos  must  have  had 
his  yearly  journeys  among  the  markets  of  the  land ; 
and  to  such  were  probably  due  his  opportunities  of 
familiarity  with  Northern  Israel,  the  originals  of  his 
vivid  pictures  of  her  town-life,  her  commerce  and  the 
worship  at  her  great  sanctuaries.  One  hour  west- 
ward from  Tekoa  would  bring  him  to  the  high-road 
between  Hebron  and  the  North,  with  its  troops  of 
pilgrims  passing  to  Beersheba.^  It  was  but  half-an-hour 
more  to  the  watershed  and  an  open  view  of  the  Philistine 
plain.  Bethlehem  was  only  six,  Jerusalem  twelve 
miles  from  Tekoa.  Ten  miles  farther,  across  the 
border  of  Israel,  lay  Bethel  with  its  temple,  seven 
miles  farther  Gilgal,  and  twenty  miles  farther  still 
Samaria  the  capital,  in  all  but  two  days'  journey  from 
Tekoa.  These  had  markets  as  well  as  shrines;* 
their  annual  festivals  would  be  also  great  fairs.  It 
is  certain  that  Amos  visited  them  ;  it  is  even  possible 
that  he  went  to  Damascus,  in  which  the  Israelites  had 
at  the  time  their  own  quarters  for  trading.  By  roaa 
and  market  he  would  meet  with  men  of  other  lands. 
Phoenician  pedlars,  or  Canaanites  as  they  were  called, 


Luke  i.  80,        ■  Mark  i.  18.        •     5;  viii.  14.         *  See  p.  36. 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


came  up  to  buy  the  homespun  for  which  the  house- 
wives of  Israel  were  famed  ^ — hard-faced  men  who  were 
also  willing  to  purchase  slaves,  and  haunted  even  the 
battle-fields  of  their  neighbours  for  this  sinister  purpose. 
Men  of  Moab,  at  the  time  subject  to  Israel ;  Aramean 
hostages;  Philistines  who  held  the  export  trade  to 
Egypt, — these  Amos  must  have  met  and  may  have 
talked  with  ;  their  dialects  scarcely  differed  from  his 
own.  It  is  no  distant,  desert  echo  of  life  which  we 
hear  in  his  pages,  but  the  thick  and  noisy  rumour  of 
caravan  and  market-place  :  how  the  plague  was  march- 
ing up  from  Egypt ;  ^  ugly  stories  of  the  Phoenician 
slave-trade ;  ^  rumours  of  the  advance  of  the  awful 
Power,  which  men  were  hardly  yet  accustomed  to  name, 
but  which  had  already  twice  broken  from  the  North 
upon  Damascus.  Or  it  was  the  progress  of  some 
national  mourning — how  lamentation  sprang  up  in 
the  capital,  rolled  along  the  highways,  and  was  re- 
echoed from  the  husbandmen  and  vinedressers  on  the 
hillsides.*  Or,  at  closer  quarters,  we  see  and  hear  the 
bustle  of  the  great  festivals  and  fairs — the  solemn 
assemblies^  the  reeking  holocausts,  the  noise  of  songs 
and  viols  )^  the  brutish  religious  zeal  kindling  into 
drunkenness  and  lust  on  the  very  steps  of  the  altar ;  • 
the  embezzlement  of  pledges  by  the  priests,  the 
covetous  restlessness  of  the  traders,  their  false  measures, 
their  entanglement  of  the  poor  in  debt ;  ^  the  careless 
luxury  of  the  rich,  their  banquets^  buckets  of  wine^  ivory 
coucheSy  pretentious,  preposterous  music.®  These  things 
are  described  as  by  an  eyewitness.  Amos  was  not  a 
citizen  of  the  Northern  Kingdom,  to  which  he  almost 


'  Prov.  xxxi.  24« 
■  vL  la 


*  V.  i6. 

•  V.  21  flf. 


*  viii.  4  ft. 

•  vi.  I,  4.7. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET  «l 


exclusively  refers  ;  but  it  was  because  he  went  up  and 
down  in  it,  using  those  eyes  which  the  desert  air  had 
sharpened,  that  he  so  thoroughly  learned  the  wickedness 
of  its  people,  the  corruption  of  Israel's  life  in  every 
rank  and  class  of  society.* 

But  the  convictions  which  he  applied  to  this  life 
Amos  learned  at  home.  They  came  to  him  over  the 
desert,  and  without  further  material  signal  than  was 
flashed  to  Tekoa  from  the  towers  of  Jerusalem.  This 
is  placed  beyond  doubt  by  the  figures  in  which  he 
describes  his  call  from  Jehovah.  Contrast  his  story, 
so  far  as  he  reveals  it,  with  that  of  another.  Some 
twenty  years  later,  Isaiah  of  Jerusalem  saw  the  Lord 
in  the  Temple,  high  and  lifted  up,  and  all  the  inaugural 
vision  of  this  greatest  of  the  prophets  was  conceived 
in  the  figures  of  the  Temple — the  altar,  the  smoke, 
the  burning  coals.  But  to  his  predecessor  among  the 
shepherds  of  Tekoa,  although  revelation  also  starts  from 
Jerusalem,  it  reaches  him,  not  in  the  sacraments  of 
her  sanctuary,  but  across  the  bare  pastures,  and  as  it 
were  in  the  roar  of  a  lion.  Jehovah  from  Zion  roarethy 
and  uttereth  His  voice  from  Jerusalem?  We  read  of 
no  formal  process  of  consecration  for  this  first  of  the 
prophets.  Through  his  clear  desert  air,  the  word  of 
God  breaks  upon  him  without  medium  or  sacrament. 
And  the  native  vigilance  of  the  man  is  startled,  is 
convinced  by  it,  beyond  all  argument  or  question.  The 
lion  hath  roared,  who  shall  not  fear?  Jehovah  hath 
spoken,  who  can  but  prophesy  ? 

These  words  are  taken  from  a  passage  in  which 
Amos  illustrates  prophecy  from  other  instances  of  his 
shepherd  life.     We   have  seen   what   a   school  of 


*  See  pp.  136  f, 

VOL.  I. 


•la. 

6 


82 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


vigilance  the  desert  is.  Upon  the  bare  surface  all 
that  stirs  is  ominous.  Every  shadow,  every  noise — 
the  shepherd  must  know  what  is  behind  and  be 
warned.  Such  a  vigilance  Amos  would  have  Israel 
apply  to  his  own  message,  and  to  the  events  of  their 
history.  Both  of  these  he  compares  to  certain  facts 
of  desert  life,  behind  which  his  shepherdly  instincts 
have  taught  him  to  feel  an  ominous  cause.  Do  two  men 
walk  together  except  they  have  trysted  ? — except  they  have 
made  an  appointment.  Hardly  in  the  desert,  foi 
there  men  meet  and  take  the  same  road  by  chance  as 
seldom  as  ships  at  sea.  Doth  a  lion  roar  in  the  jungle 
and  have  no  prey^  or  a  young  lion  let  out  his  voice  in  his 
den  except  he  be  taking  something  ?  The  hunting  lion  is 
silent  till  his  quarry  be  in  sight ;  when  the  lonely  shep- 
herd hears  the  roar  across  the  desert,  he  knows  the  lion 
leaps  upon  his  prey,  and  he  shudders  as  Israel  ought 
to  do  when  they  hear  God's  voice  by  the  prophet, 
for  this  also  is  never  loosened  but  for  some  grim  fact, 
some  leap  of  doom.  Or  doth  a  little  bird  fall  on  the 
snare  earthwards  and  there  be  no  noose  upon  her?  The 
reading  may  be  doubtful,  but  the  meaning  is  obvious  : 
no  one  ever  saw  a  bird  pulled  roughly  down  to  earth 
when  it  tried  to  fly  away  without  knowing  there  was 
the  loop  of  a  snare  about  her.  Or  does  the  snare  itself 
rise  up  from  the  ground^  except  indeed  it  be  capturing 
something? — except  there  be  in  the  trap  or  net  some- 
thing to  flutter,  struggle  and  so  lift  it  up.  Traps 
do  not  move  without  life  in  them.  Or  is  the  alarum 
trumpet^  blown  in  a  city — for  instance,  in  high  Tekoa 
up  there,  when  some  Arab  raid  sweeps  from  the  desert 

'  "IDIC^,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  means  in  early  Israel  always  the 
trumpet  blown  as  a  summons  to  war;  only  in  later  Israel  was  tlie 
name  given  to  the  temple  trumpet. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET 


83 


on  to  the  fields — and  do  the  people  not  tremble  ?  Or 
shall  calamity  happen  in  a  city  and  Jehovah  not  have 
done  it?  Yea^  the  Lord  Jehovah  doeth  nothing  but  He 
has  revealed  His  purpose  to  His  servants  the  prophets. 
My  voice  of  warning  and  these  events  of  evil  in  your 
midst  have  the  same  cause — Jehovah — behind  them. 
The  lion  hath  roared^  who  shall  not  fear  ?  Jehovah  hath 
spoken^  who  can  but  prophesy  ?  ^ 

We  cannot  miss  the  personal  note  which  rings 
through  this  triumph  in  the  reality  of  things  unseen. 
Not  only  does  it  proclaim  a  man  of  sincerity  and  con- 
viction :  it  is  resonant  with  the  discipline  by  which 
that  conviction  was  won — were  won,  too,  the  freedom 
from  illusion  and  the  power  of  looking  at  facts  in 
the  face,  which  Amos  alone  of  his  contemporaries 
possessed. 

St.  Bernard  has  described  the  first  stage  of  the 
Vision  of  God  as  the  Vision  Distributive,  in  which 
the  eager  mind  distributes  her  attention  upon  common 
things  and  common  duties  in  themselves.  It  was  in 
this  elementary  school  that  the  earliest  of  the  new 
prophets  passed  his  apprenticeship  and  received  his 
gifts.  Others  excel  Amos  in  the  powers  of  the 
imagination  and  the  intellect.  But  by  the  incorrupt 
habits  of  his  shepherd^s  life,  by  daily  wakefulness  to 
its  alarms  and  daily  faithfulness  to  its  opportunities, 
he  was  trained  in  that  simple  power  of  appreciating 
facts  and  causes,  which,  applied  to  the  great  phenomena 
of  the  spirit  and  of  history,  forms  his  distinction 
among  his  peers.  In  this  we  find  perhaps  the  reason 
why  he  records  of  himself  no  solemn  hour  of  cleansing 
and  initiation.    Jehovah  took  me  from  following  theflock^ 


'  See  further  on  this  important  passage  pp.  89  C 


84 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


and  Jehovah  said  unlo  me^  Go^  prophesy  unto  My  people 
Israel,  Amos  was  of  them  of  whom  it  is  written, 
"  Blessed  are  those  servants  whom  the  Lord  when  He 
cometh  shall  find  watching.*^  Through  all  his  hard  life, 
this  shepherd  had  kept  his  mind  open  and  his  conscience 
quick,  so  that  when  the  word  of  God  came  to  him  he 
knew  it,  as  fast  as  he  knew  the  roar  of  the  lion  across 
the  moor.  Certainly  there  is  no  habit,  which,  so  much 
as  this  of  watching  facts  with  a  single  eye  and  a 
responsible  mind,  is  indispensable  alike  in  the  humblest 
duties  and  in  the  highest  speculations  of  life.  When 
Amos  gives  those  naive  illustrations  of  how  real  the 
voice  of  God  is  to  him,  we  receive  them  as  the  tokens 
of  a  man,  honest  and  awake.  Little  wonder  that  he 
refuses  to  be  reckoned  among  the  professional  prophets 
of  his  day,  who  found  their  inspiration  in  excitement 
and  trance.  Upon  him  the  impulses  of  the  Deity  come 
in  no  artificial  and  morbid  ecstasy,  removed  as  far  as 
possible  from  real  life.  They  come  upon  him,  as  it 
were,  in  the  open  air.  They  appeal  to  the  senses  of 
his  healthy  and  expert  manhood.  They  convince  him 
of  their  reality  with  the  same  force  as  do  the  most 
startling  events  of  his  lonely  shepherd  watches.  The 
lion  hath  roared^  who  shall  not  fear?  Jehovah  hath 
spoken^  who  can  but  prophesy  ? 

The  influence  of  the  same  discipline  is  still  visible 
when  Amos  passes  from  the  facts  of  his  own  con- 
sciousness to  the  facts  of  his  people's  life.  His  day  in 
Israel  sweltered  with  optimism.  The  glare  of  wealth, 
the  fulsome  love  of  country,  the  rank  incense  of  a 
religion  that  was  without  morality — these  thickened 
all  the  air,  and  neither  the  people  nor  their  rulers  had 
any  vision.  But  Amos  carried  with  him  his  clear 
desert  atmosphere  and  his  desert  eyes.    He  saw  the 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET 


85 


raw  facts  :  the  poverty,  the  cruel  negligence  of  the  rich, 
the  injustice  of  the  rulers,  the  immorality  of  the  priests. 
The  meaning  of  these  things  he  questioned  with  as 
much  persistence  as  he  questioned  every  suspicious 
sound  or  sight  upon  those  pastures  of  Tekoa.  He  had 
no  illusions  :  he  knew  a  mirage  when  he  saw  one. 
Neither  the  military  pride  of  the  people,  fostered  by 
recent  successes  over  Syria,  nor  the  dogmas  of  their 
religion,  which  asserted  Jehovah's  swift  triumph  upon 
the  heathen,  could  prevent  him  from  knowing  that  the 
immorality  of  Israel  meant  Israel's  political  downfall. 
He  was  one  of  those  recruits  from  common  life,  by 
w^hom  religion  and  the  state  have  at  all  times  been 
reformed.  Springing  from  the  laity  and  very  often 
from  among  the  working  classes,  their  freedom  from 
dogmas  and  routine,  as  well  as  from  the  compromising 
interests  of  wealth,  rank  and  party,  renders  them 
experts  in  life  to  a  degree  that  almost  no  professional 
priest,  statesman  or  journaHst,  however  honest  or 
sympathetic,  can  hope  to  rival.  Into  politics  they 
bring  facts,  but  into  religion  they  bring  vision. 

It  is  of  the  utmost  significance  that  this  reformer, 
this  founder  of  the  highest  order  of  prophecy  in  Israel, 
should  not  only  thus  begin  with  facts,  but  to  the  very 
end  be  occupied  with  almost  nothing  else,  than  the 
vision  and  record  of  them.  In  Amos  there  is  but 
one  prospect  of  the  Ideal.  It  does  not  break  till  the 
close  of  his  book,  and  then  in  such  contrast  to  the  plain 
and  final  indictments,  which  constitute  nearly  all  the 
rest  of  his  prophesying,  that  many  have  not  un- 
naturally denied  to  him  the  verses  which  contain  it. 
Throughout  the  other  chapters  we  have  but  the 
exposure  of  present  facts,  material  and  moral,  nor  the 
sight  of  any  future  more  distant  than  to-morrow  and 


86 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


the  immediate  consequences  of  to-day's  deeds.  Let 
us  mark  this.  The  new  prophecy  which  Amos  started 
in  Israel  reached  Divine  heights  of  hope,  unfolded 
infinite  powers  of  moral  and  political  regeneration — 
dared  to  blot  out  all  the  past,  dared  to  believe  all  things 
possible  in  the  future.  But  it  started  from  the  truth 
about  the  moral  situation  of  the  present.  Its  first 
prophet  not  only  denied  every  popular  dogma  and 
ideal,  but  appears  not  to  have  substituted  for  them 
any  others.  He  spent  his  gifts  of  vision  on  the  dis- 
covery and  appreciation  of  facts.  Now  this  is  neces- 
sary, not  only  in  great  reformations  of  religion,  but 
at  almost  every  stage  in  her  development.  We  are 
constantly  disposed  to  abuse  even  the  most  just  and 
•necessary  of  religious  ideals  as  substitutes  for  experience 
or  as  escapes  from  duty,  and  to  boast  about  the  future 
before  we  have  understood  or  mastered  the  present. 
Hence  the  need  of  realists  like  Amos.  Though  they 
are  destitute  of  dogma,  of  comfort,  of  hope,  of  the 
ideal,  let  us  not  doubt  that  they  also  stand  in  the 
succession  of  the  prophets  of  the  Lord. 

Nay,  this  is  a  stage  of  prophecy  on  which  may  be 
fulfilled  the  prayer  of  Moses  :  Would  to  God  that  all 
the  Lord^s  people  were  prophets  I  To  see  the  truth  and 
tell  it,  to  be  accurate  and  brave  about  the  moral 
facts  of  our  day — to  this  extent  the  Vision  and  the 
Voice  are  possible  for  every  one  of  us.  Never  for  us 
may  the  doors  of  heaven  open,  as  they  did  for  him 
who  stood  on  the  threshold  of  the  earthly  temple, 
and  he  saw  the  Lord  enthroned,  while  the  Seraphim 
of  the  Presence  sang  the  glory.  Never  for  us  may 
the  skies  fill  with  that  tempest  of  life  which  Ezekiel 
beheld  from  Shinar,  and  above  it  the  sapphire  throne, 
and  on  the  throne  the  likeness  of  a  man,  the  likeness 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET  87 


of  the  glory  of  the  Lord.  Yet  let  us  remember  that 
to  see  facts  as  they  are  and  to  tell  the  truth  about 
them — this  also  is  prophecy.  We  may  inhabit  a  sphere 
which  does  not  prompt  the  imagination,  but  is  as 
destitute  of  the  historic  and  traditional  as  was  the 
wilderness  of  Tekoa.  All  the  more  may  our  un- 
glamoured  eyes  be  true  to  the  facts  about  us.  Every 
common  day  leads  forth  her  duties  as  shining  as  every 
night  leads  forth  her  stars.  The  deeds  and  the  fortunes 
of  men  are  in  our  sight,  and  spell,  to  all  who  will 
honestly  read,  the  very  Word  of  the  Lord.  If  only 
we  be  loyal,  then  by  him  who  made  the  rude  sounds 
and  sights  of  the  desert  his  sacraments,  and  whose 
vigilance  of  things  seen  and  temporal  became  the 
vision  of  things  unseen  and  eternal,  we  also  shall  see 
God,  and  be  sure  of  His  ways  with  men. 

Before  we  pass  from  the  desert  discipline  of  the 
prophet,  we  must  notice  one  of  its  effects,  which,  while 
it  greatly  enhanced  the  clearness  of  his  vision,  un- 
doubtedly disabled  Amos  for  the  highest  prophetic 
rank.  He  who  lives  in  the  desert  lives  without 
patriotism — detached  and  aloof  He  may  see  the 
throng  of  men  more  clearly  than  those  who  move 
among  it.  He  cannot  possibly  so  much  feel  for  them. 
Unlike  Hosea,  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  Amos  was  not 
a  citizen  of  the  kingdom  against  which  he  prophesied, 
and  indeed  no  proper  citizen  of  any  kingdom,  but  a 
nomad  herdsman,  hovering  on  the  desert  borders  of 
Judaea.  He  ^aw  Israel  from  the  outside.  His  message 
to  her  is  achieved  with  scarcely  one  sob  in  his  voice. 
For  the  sake  of  the  poor  and  the  oppressed  among 
the  people  he  is  indignant.  But  with  the  erring, 
staggering  nation  as  a  whole  he  has  no  leal  sympathy. 
His  pity  for  her  is  exhausted  in  one  elegy  and  twc 


88 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


brief  intercessions  ;  hardly  more  than  once  does  he  even 
call  her  to  repentance.  His  sense  of  justice,  in  fact, 
had  almost  never  to  contend  with  his  love.  This 
made  Amos  the  better  witness,  but  the  worse  prophet. 
He  did  not  rise  so  high  as  his  great  successors,  because 
he  did  not  so  feel  himself  one  with  the  people  whom  he 
was  forced  to  condemn,  because  he  did  not  bear  their  fate 
as  his  own  nor  travail  for  their  new  birth.  "  Ihm  fehlt 
die  Liebe."  Love  is  the  element  lacking  in  his  prophecy ; 
and  therefore  the  words  are  true  of  him,  which  were 
uttered  of  his  great  follower  across  this  same  wilderness 
of  Judaea,  that  mighty  as  were  his  voice  and  his  message 
to  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord,  yet  the  least  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  greater  than  he. 

2.  The  Word  and  its  Origins. 

Amos  i.  2 ;  iii.  3-8  ;  and  passim. 

We  have  seen  the  preparation  of  the  Man  for  the 
Word.  We  are  now  to  ask,  Whence  came  the  Word 
to  the  Man  ? — the  Word  that  made  him  a  prophet. 
What  were  its  sources  and  sanctions  outside  himself? 
These  involve  other  questions.  How  much  of  his 
message  did  Amos  inherit  from  the  previous  religion 
of  his  people  ?  And  how  much  did  he  teach  for  the 
first  time  in  Israel?  And  again,  how  much  of  this 
new  element  did  he  owe  to  the  great  events  of  his 
day  ?  And  how  much  demands  some  other  source  of 
inspiration  ? 

To  all  these  inquiries,  outlines  of  the  answers  ought 
by  this  time  to  have  become  visible.  We  have  seen 
that  the  contents  of  the  Book  of  Amos  consist  almost 
entirely  of  two  kinds :  facts,  actual  or  imminent,  in  the 
history  of  his  people ;  and  certain  moral  principles  of 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET 


89 


the  most  elementary  order.  Amos  appeals  to  no 
dogma  nor  form  of  law,  nor  to  any  religious  or  national 
institution.  Still  more  remarkably,  he  does  not  rely 
upon  miracle  nor  any  so-called  supernatural  sign." 
To  employ  the  terms  of  Mazzini's  famous  formula, 
Amos  draws  his  materials  solely  from  conscience 
and  history."  Within  himself  he  hears  certain  moral 
principles  speak  in  the  voice  of  God,  and  certain  events 
of  his  day  he  recognises  as  the  judicial  acts  of  God. 
The  principles  condemn  the  living  generation  of  Israel 
as  morally  corrupt ;  the  events  threaten  the  people 
with  political  extinction.  From  this  agreement  between 
inward  conviction  and  outward  event  Amos  draws 
his  full  confidence  as  a  prophet,  and  enforces  on  the 
people  his  message  of  doom  as  God's  own  word. 

The  passage  in  which  Amos  most  explicitly  illustrates 
this  harmony  between  event  and  conviction  is  one 
whose  metaphors  we  have  already  quoted  in  proof  of 
the  desert^s  influence  upon  the  prophet's  life.  When 
Amos  asks.  Can  two  walk  together  except  they  have  made 
an  appointment  ?  his  figure  is  drawn,  as  we  have  seen, 
from  the  wilderness  in  which  two  men  v/ill  hardly  meet 
except  they  have  arranged  to  do  so ;  but  the  truth,  he 
would  illustrate  by  the  figure,  is  that  two  sets  of  pheno- 
mena which  coincide  must  have  sprung  from  a  common 
purpose.  Their  conjunction  forbids  mere  chance. 
What  kind  of  phenomena  he  means,  he  lets  us  see  in 
his  next  instance  :  Doth  a  lion  roar  in  the  jttngle  and 
have  no  prey  ?  Doth  a  young  lion  let  forth  his  voice 
from  his  den  except  he  be  catching  something  ?  That  is, 
those  ominous  sounds  never  happen  without  some  fell 
and  terrible  deed  happening  along  with  them.  Amos 
thus  plainly  hints  that  the  two  phenomena  on  whose 
coincidence  he  insists  are  an  utterance  on  one  side,  and 


90 


TUE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


on  the  other  side  a  deed  fraught  with  destruction.  The 
leading  of  the  next  metaphor  about  the  bird  and  the 
snare  is  uncertain ;  at  most  what  it  means  is  thai 
you  never  see  signs  of  distress  or  a  vain  struggle  to 
escape  without  there  being,  though  out  of  sight,  some 
real  cause  for  them.^  But  from  so  general  a  principle  he 
returns  in  his  fourth  metaphor  to  the  special  coincidence 
between  utterance  and  deed.  Is  the  alarum-trumpet 
blown  in  a  city  and  do  the  people  not  tremble  ?  Of  course 
they  do ;  they  know  such  sound  is  never  made  without 
the  approach  of  calamity.  But  who  is  the  author  of 
every  calamity  ?  God  Himself:  Shall  there  be  evil  in  a 
city  and  Jehovah  not  have  done  it  ?  Very  well  then  ;  we 
have  seen  that  common  life  has  many  instances  in 
which,  when  an  ominous  sound  is  heard,  it  is  because 
it  is  closely  linked  with  a  fatal  deed.  These  happen 
together,  not  by  mere  chance,  but  because  the  one  is 
the  expression,  the  warning  or  the  explanation  of  the 
other.  And  we  also  know  that  fatal  deeds  which 
happen  to  any  community  in  Israel  are  from  Jehovah. 
He  is  behind  them.  But  they,  too,  are  accompanied 
by  a  warning  voice  from  the  same  source  as  themselves. 
This  is  the  voice  which  the  prophet  hears  in  his  heart — 
the  moral  conviction  which  he  feels  as  the  Word  of  God. 
The  Lord  Jehovah  doeth  nothing  but  He  hath  revealed 
His  counsel  to  His  servants  the  prophets.  Mark  the 
grammar:  the  revelation  comes  first  to  the  prophet's 
heart;  then  he  sees  and  recognises  the  event,  and  is 
confident  to  give  his  message  about  it.    So  Amos, 


'  Shall  a  little  bird  fah  on  the  snare  earthwards  and  there  be  no 
Hoose  about  her  ?  Shall  a  snare  rise  from  the  ground  and  not  be  taking 
something  ?  On  this  see  p.  82.  Its  meaning  seems  to  be  equivalent 
to  the  Scottish  proverb :  "  There's  aye  some  water  whan  the  stirkie 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET  91 


repeating  his  metaphor,  sums  up  his  argument.  The 
Lion  hath  roared^  who  shall  not  fear? — certain  that 
there  is  more  than  sound  to  happen.  The  Lord  Jehovah 
hath  spoken^  who  can  but  prophesy  ? — certain  that  what 
Jehovah  has  spoken  to  him  inwardly  is  Hkewise  no 
mere  sound,  but  that  deeds  of  judgment  are  about  to 
happen,  as  the  ominous  voice  requires  they  should.* 

The  prophet  then  is  made  sure  of  his  message  by  the 
agreement  between  the  inward  convictions  of  his  soul 
and  the  outward  events  of  the  day.  When  these  walk 
together,  it  proves  that  they  have  come  of  a  common 
purpose.  He  who  causes  the  events — it  is  Jehovah 
Himself,  for  shall  there  be  evil  in  a  city  and  Jehovah  not 
have  done  it  ? — must  be  author  also  of  the  inner  voice 
or  conviction  which  agrees  with  them.  Who  then  can 
but  prophesy  ?  Observe  again  that  no  support  is  here 
derived  from  miracle;  nor  is  any  claim  made  for  the 
prophet  on  the  ground  of  his  ability  to  foretell  the 
event.  It  is  the  agreement  of  the  idea  with  the  fact, 
their  evident  common  origin  in  the  purpose  of  Jehovah, 
which  makes  a  man  sure  that  he  has  in  him  the  Word 
of  God.  Both  are  necessary,  and  together  are  enough. 
Are  we  then  to  leave  the  origin  of  the  Word  in  this 
coincidence  of  fact  and  thought — as  it  were  an  electric 
flash  produced  by  the  contact  of  conviction  with  event  ? 
Hardly :  there  are  questions  behind  this  coincidence. 
For  instance,  as  to  how  the  two  react  on  each  other — 
the  event  provoking  the  conviction,  the  conviction  in- 
terpreting the  event?  The  argument  of  Amos  seems 
to  imply  that  the  ethical  principles  are  experienced  b}^ 
the  prophet  prior  to  the  events  which  justify  them 

*  There  is  thus  no  reason  to  alter  the  words  who  shall  not 
prophesy  to  who  shall  not  tremble — as  Wellhausen  does.  To  do  so  is 
to  blunt  the  point  of  the  argument. 


92 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Is  this  so,  or  was  the  shock  of  the  events  required  to 
awaken  the  principles?  And  if  the  principles  were 
prior,  whence  did  Amos  derive  them?  These  are 
some  questions  that  will  lead  us  to  the  very  origins  of 
revelation. 

The  greatest  of  the  events  with  which  Amos  and  his 
contemporaries  dealt  was  the  Assyrian  invasion.  In 
a  previous  chapter  we  have  tried  to  estimate  the  in- 
tellectual effects  of  Assyria  on  prophecy.^  Assyria 
widened  the  horizon  of  Israel,  put  the  world  to  Hebrew 
eyes  into  a  new  perspective,  vastly  increased  the 
possibilities  of  history  and  set  to  religion  a  novel  order 
of  problems.  We  can  trace  the  effects  upon  Israel's 
conceptions  of  God,  of  man  and  even  of  nature.*  Now 
it  might  be  plausibly  argued  that  the  new  prophecy 
in  Israel  was  first  stirred  and  quickened  by  all  this 
mental  shock  and  strain,  and  that  even  the  loftier  ethics 
of  the  prophets  were  thus  due  to  the  advance  of  Assyria. 
For,  as  the  most  vigilant  watchmen  of  their  day,  the 
prophets  observed  the  rise  of  that  empire,  and  felt  its 
fatality  for  Israel.  Turning  then  to  inquire  the  Divine 
reasons  for  such  a  destruction,  they  found  these  in 
Israel's  sinfulness,  to  the  full  extent  of  which  their 
hearts  were  at  last  awakened.  According  to  such  a 
theory  the  prophets  were  politicians  first  and  moralists 
afterwards  :  alarmists  to  begin  with,  and  preachers  of 
repentance  only  second.  Or — to  recur  to  the  language 
employed  above — the  prophets'  experience  of  the 
historical  event  preceded  their  conviction  of  the  moral 
principle  which  agreed  with  it. 

In  support  of  such  a  theory  it  is  pointed  out  that 
after  all  the  most  original  element  in  the  prophecy  of 


>  Sec  Chap.  IV, 


•  See  pp.  53  ft. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET 


93 


the  eighth  century  was  the  announcement  of  IsraeFs 
fall  and  exile.  The  Righteousness  of  Jehovah  had 
often  previously  been  enforced  in  Israel,  but  never 
had  any  voice  drawn  from  it  this  awful  conclusion  that 
the  nation  must  perish.  The  first  in  Israel  to  dare  this 
was  Amos,  and  surely  what  enabled  him  to  do  so  was 
the  imminence  of  Assyria  upon  his  people.  Again, 
such  a  theory  might  plausibly  point  to  the  opening  verse 
of  the  Book  of  Amos,  with  its  unprefaced,  unexplained 
pronouncement  of  doom  upon  Israel : — 

The  Lord  roareth  from  Zion^ 
And  giveth  voice  from  Jerusalem; 
And  the  pastures  of  the  shepherds  mourn^ 
And  the  summit  of  Carmelis  withered  I 

Here,  it  might  be  averred,  is  the  earliest  prophet^s 
earliest  utterance.  Is  it  not  audibly  the  voice  of  a  man 
in  a  panic — such  a  panic  as,  ever  on  the  eve  of  historic 
convulsions,  seizes  the  more  sensitive  minds  of  a 
doomed  people  ?  The  distant  Assyrian  thunder  has 
reached  Amos,  on  his  pastures,  unprepared — unable  to 
articulate  its  exact  meaning,  and  with  only  faith  enough 
to  hear  in  it  the  voice  of  his  God.  He  needs  reflection 
to  unfold  its  contents ;  and  the  process  of  this 
reflection  we  find  through  the  rest  of  his  book.  There 
he  details  for  us,  with  increasing  clearness,  both  the 
ethical  reasons  and  the  poHtical  results  of  that  Assyrian 
terror,  by  which  he  was  at  first  so  wildly  shocked  into 
prophecy. 

But  the  panic-born  are  always  the  still-born ;  and  it 
is  simply  impossible  that  prophecy,  in  all  her  ethical 
and  religious  vigour,  can  have  been  the  daughter  of  so 
tatal  a  birth.  If  we  look  again  at  the  evidence  which 
is  quoted  from  Amos  ia  favour  of  such  a  theory,  we 


94 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


shall  see  how  fully  it  is  contradicted  by  other  features 
of  his  book. 

To  begin  with,  we  are  not  certain  that  the  terror  of 
the  opening  verse  of  Amos  is  the  Assyrian  terror.  Even 
if  it  were,  the  opening  of  a  book  does  not  necessarily 
represent  the  writer^s  earliest  feelings.  The  rest  of  the 
chapters  contain  visions  and  oracles  which  obviously 
date  from  a  time  when  Amos  was  not  yet  startled  by 
Assyria,  but  believed  that  the  punishment  which  Israel 
required  might  be  accomplished  through  a  series  of 
physical  calamities — locusts,  drought  and  pestilence.^ 
Nay,  it  was  not  even  these  earlier  judgments,  preceding 
the  Assyrian,  which  stirred  the  word  of  God  in  the 
prophet.  He  introduces  them  with  a  now  and  a 
therefore.  That  is  to  say,  he  treats  them  only  as  the 
consequence  of  certain  facts,  the  conclusion  of  certain 
premises.  These  facts  and  premises  are  moral — they 
are  exclusively  moral.  They  are  the  sins  of  Israel's 
life,  regarded  without  illusion  and  without  pity.  They 
are  certain  simple  convictions,  which  fill  the  prophet's 
heart,  about  the  impossibility  of  the  survival  of  any 
state  which  is  so  perverse  and  so  corrupt. 

This  origin  of  prophecy  in  moral  facts  and  moral 
intuitions,  which  are  in  their  beginning  independent  of 
political  events,  may  be  illustrated  by  several  other 
points.  For  instance,  the  sins  which  Amos  marked  in 
Israel  were  such  as  required  no  '^red  dawn  of  judg- 
ment" to  expose  their  flagrance  and  fatality.  The 
abuse  of  justice,  the  cruelty  of  the  rich,  the  shameless 
immorality  of  the  priests,  are  not  sins  which  we  feel  only 
in  the  cool  of  the  day,  when  God  Himself  draws  near 
to  judgment.    They  are  such  things  as  make  men 


*  See  pp.  69 1. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET  95 


shiver  in  the  sunshine.  And  so  the  Book  of  Amos, 
and  not  less  that  of  Hosea,  tremble  with  the  feeling 
that  Israel's  social  corruption  is  great  enough  of  itself, 
without  the  aid  of  natural  convulsions,  to  shake  the 
very  basis  of  national  Hfe.  Shall  not  the  land  tremble 
for  this,  Amos  says  after  reciting  some  sins,  and 
every  one  that  dwelleth  therein  ?^  Not  drought  nor  pesti- 
lence nor  invasion  is  needed  for  Israel's  doom,  but  the 
elemental  force  of  ruin  which  lies  in  the  people's  own 
wickedness.  This  is  enough  to  create  gloom  long 
before  the  political  skies  be  overcast — or,  as  Amos 
himself  puts  it,  this  is  enough 

To  cause  the  sun  to  go  down  at  noon. 
And  to  darken  the  earth  in  the  clear  day} 

And  once  more — in  spite  of  Assyria  the  ruin  may  be 
averted,  if  only  the  people  will  repent :  Seek  good  and 
not  evil,  and  Jehovah  of  hosts  will  be  with  you,  as  you 
say?  Assyria,  however  threatening,  becomes  irrelevant 
to  Israel's  future  from  the  moment  that  Israel  repents. 

Such  beliefs,  then,  are  obviously  not  the  results  of 
experience,  nor  of  a  keen  observation  of  history. 
They  are  the  primal  convictions  of  the  heart,  which  are 
deeper  than  all  experience,  and  themselves  contain  the 
sources  of  historical  foresight.  With  Amos  it  was  not 
the  outward  event  which  inspired  the  inward  conviction, 
but  the  conviction  which  anticipated  and  interpreted 
the  event,  though  when  the  event  came  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  it  confirmed,  deepened,  and  articulated 
the  conviction.* 


*  viii.  8.  «  viii.  9.  ■  v.  14. 

*  How  far  Assyria  assisted  the  development  of  prophecy  we  havi 
already  seen.  But  we  have  been  made  aware,  at  the  same  time,  that 
Assyria's  service  to  Israel  in  this  respect  presupposed  the  possession 


96 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


But  when  we  have  thus  tracked  the  stream  of 
prophecy  as  far  back  as  these  elementary  convictions 
we  have  not  reached  the  fountain-head.  Whence  did 
Amos  derive  his  simple  and  absolute  ethics?  Were 
they  original  to  him?  Were  they  new  in  Israel? 
Such  questions  start  an  argument  which  touches  the 
very  origins  of  revelation. 

It  is  obvious  that  Amos  not  only  takes  for  granted 
the  laws  of  righteousness  which  he  enforces :  he  takes 
for  granted  also  the  people's  conscience  of  them.  New, 
indeed,  is  the  doom  which  sinful  Israel  deserves,  and 
original  to  himself  is  the  proclamation  of  it ;  but  Amos 
appeals  to  the  moral  principles  which  justify  the  doom, 
as  if  they  were  not  new,  and  as  if  Israel  ought  always 
to  have  known  them.  This  attitude  of  the  prophet 
to  his  principles  has,  in  our  time,  suffered  a  curious 
judgment.  It  has  been  called  an  anachronism.  So 
absolute  a  morality,  some  say,  had  never  before  been 
taught  in  Israel ;  nor  had  righteousness  been  so  ex- 
clusively emphasised  as  the  purpose  of  Jehovah.  Amos 
and  the  other  prophets  of  his  century  were  the  virtual 
"  creators  of  ethical  monotheism " :  it  could  only  be 
by  a  prophetic  licence  or  prophetic  fiction  that  he  ap- 
pealed to  his  people's  conscience  of  the  standards  he 
promulgated,  or  condemned  his  generation  to  death 
for  not  having  lived  up  to  them. 

Let  us  see  how  far  this  criticism  is  supported  by 
the  facts. 

To  no  sane  observer  can  the  religious  history  of 


by  the  prophets  of  certain  beliefs  in  the  character  and  will  of  their 
God,  Jehovah.  The  prophets'  faith  could  never  have  risen  to  the 
magnitude  of  the  nevi^  problems  set  to  it  by  Assyria  if  there  had 
not  been  already  inherent  in  it  that  belief  in  the  sovereignty  of  a 
Righteousness  of  which  all  things  material  were  but  the  instruments. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET  $7 


Israel  appear  as  anything  but  a  course  of  gradual 
development.  Even  in  the  moral  standards,  in  respect 
to  which  it  is  confessedly  often  most  difficult  to  prove 
growth,  the  signs  of  the  nation's  progress  are  very 
manifest.  Practices  come  to  be  forbidden  in  Israel 
and  tempers  to  be  mitigated,  which  in  earlier  ages  were 
sanctioned  to  their  extreme  by  the  explicit  decrees  of 
religion.  In  the  nation's  attitude  to  the  outer  world 
sympathies  arise,  along  with  ideals  of  spiritual  service, 
where  previously  only  war  and  extermination  had  been 
enforced  in  the  name  of  the  Deity.  Now  in  such  an 
evolution  it  is  equally  indubitable  that  the  longest  and 
most  rapid  stage  was  the  prophecy  of  the  eighth 
century.  The  prophets  of  that  time  condemn  acts  which 
had  been  inspired  by  their  immediate  predecessors;* 
they  abjure,  as  impeding  morality,  a  ceremonial  which 
the  spiritual  leaders  of  earlier  generations  had  felt 
to  be  indispensable  to  religion ;  and  they  unfold  ideals 
of  the  nation's  moral  destiny,  of  which  older  WTitings 
give  us  only  the  faintest  hints.  Yet,  while  the  fact 
of  a  religious  evolution  in  Israel  is  thus  certain,  we 
must  not  fall  into  the  vulgar  error  which  interprets 
evolution  as  if  it  were  mere  addition,  nor  forget  that 
even  in  the  most  creative  periods  of  religion  nothing 
is  brought  forth  which  has  not  already  been  promised, 
and,  at  some  earlier  stage,  placed,  so  to  speak,  within 
reach  of  the  human  mind.  After  all  it  is  the  mind 
which  grows;  the  moral  ideals  which  become  visible 
to  its  more  matured  vision  are  so  Divine  that,  when 
they  present  themselves,  the  mind  cannot  but  think 
they  were  always  real  and  always  imperative.    If  we 

*  Compare,  for  instance,  Hosea's  condemnation  of  Jehu's  murder 
of  Joram,  with  Elisha*s  command  to  do  it ;  also  2  Kings  iii.  19,  25, 
with  Deut.  xx.  19. 

VOL.  '  f 


98 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


remember  these  commonplaces  we  shall  do  justice  both 
to  Amos  and  to  his  critics. 

In  the  first  place  it  is  clear  that  most  of  the  morality 
which  Amos  enforced  is  of  that  fundamental  order 
which  can  never  have  been  recognised  as  the  discovery 
or  invention  of  any  prophet.  Whatever  be  their  origin, 
the  conscience  of  justice,  the  duty  of  kindness  to  the 
poor,  the  horror  of  wanton  cruelty  towards  one's  enemies, 
which  form  the  chief  principles  of  Amos,  are  discernible 
in  man  as  far  back  as  history  allows  us  to  search  for 
them.  Should  a  generation  have  lost  them,  they  can 
be  brought  back  to  it,  never  with  the  thrill  of  a  new 
lesson,  but  only  with  the  shame  of  an  old  and  an 
abused  memory.  To  neither  man  nor  people  can  the 
righteousness  which  Amos  preached  appear  as  a  dis- 
covery, but  always  as  a  recollection  and  a  remorse. 
And  this  is  most  emphatically  true  of  the  people  of 
Moses  and  of  Samuel,  of  Nathan,  of  Elijah  and  of 
the  Book  of  the  Covenant.  Ethical  elements  had  been 
characteristic  of  Israel's  religion  from  the  very  first. 
They  were  not  due  to  a  body  of  written  law,  but  rather 
to  the  character  of  Israel's  God,  appreciated  by  the 
nation  in  all  the  great  crises  of  their  history.*  Jehovah 
had  won  for  Israel  freedom  and  unity.  He  had  been 
a  spirit  of  justice  to  their  lawgivers  and  magistrates.* 
He  had  raised  up  a  succession  of  consecrated  per- 
sonalities,^ who  by  life  and  word  had  purified  the  ideals 
of  the  whole  people.  The  results  had  appeared  in 
the  creation  of  a  strong  national  conscience,  which 
avenged  with  horror,  as  folly  in  Israel^  the  wanton 
crimes  of  any  person  or  section  of  the  commonwealth ; 
i  the  gradual  formation  of  a  legal  code,  founded  indeed 


*  Sec  above,  p.  lo. 


•  IsR.  xxviii. 


Amos  iL 


THE  MAA  AND  THE  PROPHET  99 


in  the  common  custom  of  the  Semites,  but  greatly  more 
moral  than  that ;  and  even  in  the  attainment  of  certain 
profoundly  ethical  beliefs  about  God  and  His  relations, 
beyond  Israel,  to  all  mankind.  Now,  let  us  understand 
once  for  all,  that  in  the  ethics  of  Amos  there  is  nothing 
which  is  not  rooted  in  one  or  other  of  these  achieve- 
ments  of  the  previous  religion  of  his  people.  To 
this  religion  Amos  felt  himself  attached  in  the  closest 
possible  way.  The  word  of  God  comes  to  him  across 
the  desert,  as  we  have  seen,  yet  not  out  of  the  air. 
From  the  first  he  hears  it  rise  from  that  one  monument 
of  his  people's  past  which  we  have  found  visible  on 
his  physical  horizon^ — -from  Zion^  from  Jerusalem ^'^ 
from  the  city  of  David,  from  the  Ark,  whose  ministers 
were  Moses  and  Samuel,  from  the  repository  of  the 
main  tradition  of  Israel's  religion.^  Amos  felt  himself 
in  the  sacred  succession ;  and  his  feeling  is  confirmed 
by  the  contents  of  his  book.  The  details  of  that  civic 
justice  which  he  demands  from  his  generation  are  found 
in  the  Book  of  the  Covenant — the  only  one  of  Israel's 
great  codes  which  appears  by  this  time  to  have  been 
in  existence ;  *  or  in  those  popular  proverbs  which 
almost  as  certainly  were  found  in  early  Israel.* 


'  Anie^  pt  74.  •  i.  2. 

•  Therefore  we  see  at  a  glance  how  utterly  inadequate  is  Renan's 
brilliant  comparison  of  Amos  to  a  modern  revolutionary  journalist 
{Histoire  du  Peuple  Israel^  II.).  Journalist  indeed  1  How  all  this 
would-be  cosmopolitan  and  impartial  critic's  judgments  smack  of  the 
boulevards  1 

•  Exod.  XX. ;  incorporated  in  the  JE  book  of  history,  and,  ac- 
cording to  nearly  all  critics,  complete  by  750;  the  contents  must 
have  been  familiar  in  Israel  long  before  that.  There  is  no  trace  in 
Amos  of  any  influence  peculiar  to  cither  the  Deuteronomic  or  the 
Lcvitical  legislation. 

•  See  especially  Schultz,  O.  T.  Theol.^  Eng.  Trans,  by  Paterson,  I.  214. 


100 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Nor  does  Amos  go  elsewhere  for  the  religious  sanc- 
tions of  his  ethics.  It  is  by  the  ancient  mercies  of 
God  towards  Israel  that  he  shames  and  convicts  his 
generation — by  the  deeds  of  grace  which  made  them  a 
nation,  by  the  organs  of  doctrine  and  reproof  which  have 
inspired  them,  unfailing  from  age  to  age.  /  destroyed 
the  Amorite  before  them.  .  .  .  Yea^  I  brought  you  up  out 
of  the  land  of  Egvpt^  and  I  led  you  forty  years  in  the 
wilderness^  to  possess  the  land  of  the  Amorites,  And  I 
raised  up  of  your  sons  for  prophets^  and  of  your  young  men 
for  Nazirites,  Was  it  not  even  thus^  O  ye  children  of 
Israel  ?  saith  Jehovah}  We  cannot  even  say  that  the 
belief  which  Amos  expresses  in  Jehovah  as  the  supreme 
Providence  of  the  world  ^  was  a  new  thing  in  Israel, 
for  a  belief  as  universal  inspires  those  portions  of 
the  Book  of  Genesis  which,  like  the  Book  of  the 
Covenant,  were  already  extant. 

We  see,  therefore,  what  right  Amos  had  to  present 
his  ethical  truths  to  Israel,  as  if  they  were  not  new,  but 
had  been  within  reach  of  his  people  from  of  old. 

We  could  not,  however,  commit  a  greater  mistake, 
than  to  confine  the  inspiration  of  our  prophet  to  the 
past,  and  interpret  his  doctrines  as  mere  inferences 
from  the  earlier  religious  ideas  of  Israel — inferences 
forced  by  his  own  passionate  logic,  or  more  naturally 
ripened  for  him  by  the  progress  of  events.  A  recent 
writer  has  thus  summarised  the  work  of  the  prophets 
of  the  eighth  century  :  In  fact  they  laid  hold  upon 
that  bias  towards  the  ethical,  which  dwelt  in  Jahwism 
from  Moses  onwards,  and  they  allowed  it  alone  to  have 


*  ii.  9-1 1.    On  this  passage  see  further  p.  137, 

•  If  iv.  13,  V.  8  and  ix.  6  be  genuine,  this  remark  equally  applies  to 
belief  in  Jehovah  as  Creator. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET  loi 


value  as  corresponding  to  the  true  religion  of  Jehovah."  * 
But  this  is  too  abstract  to  be  an  adequate  statement 
of  the  prophets*  own  consciousness.  What  overcame 
Amos  was  a  Personal  Influence — the  Impression  of  a 
Character ;  and  it  was  this  not  only  as  it  was  revealed 
in  the  past  of  his  people.  The  God  who  stands  behind 
Amos  is  indeed  the  ancient  Deity  of  Israel,  and  the 
facts  which  prove  Him  God  are  those  which  made  the 
nation — the  Exodus,  the  guidance  through  the  wilder- 
ness, the  overthrow  of  the  Amorites,  the  gift  of  the 
land.  Was  it  not  even  thus,  O  ye  children  of  Israel  ? 
But  what  beats  and  burns  through  the  pages  of 
Amos  is  not  the  memory  of  those  wonderful  works, 
so  much  as  a  fresh  vision  and  understanding  of  the 
Living  God  who  worked  them.  Amos  has  himself 
met  with  Jehovah  on  the  conditions  of  his  own  time 
— on  the  moral  situation  provided  by  the  living  genera- 
tion of  Israel.  By  an  intercourse  conducted,  not 
through  the  distant  signals  of  the  past,  but  here  and 
now,  through  the  events  of  the  prophet's  own  day, 
Amos  has  received  an  original  and  overpowering  con- 
viction of  his  people's  God  as  absolute  righteousness. 
What  prophecy  had  hitherto  felt  in  part,  and  applied 
to  one  or  other  of  the  departments  of  Israel's  life, 
Amos  is  the  first  to  feel  in  its  fulness,  and  to  every 
extreme  of  its  consequences  upon  the  worship,  the 
conduct  and  the  fortunes  of  the  nation.  To  him 
Jdiovah  not  only  commands  this  and  that  righteous 
law,  but  Jehovah  and  righteousness  are  absolutely 
identical.  Seek  Jehovah  and  ye  shall  live  .  .  .  seek  good 
and  ye  shall  live}  The  absoluteness  with  which  Amos 
conceived  this  principle,  the  courage  with  wliich  he 


'  Kayser,  Old  Testament  Ihculo^y, 


*     6,  14. 


102 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


applied  it,  carry  him  along  those  two  great  lines  upon 
which  we  most  clearly  trace  his  originality  as  a  prophet. 
In  the  strength  of  this  principle  he  does  what  is  really 
new  in  Israel :  he  discards  the  two  elements  which  had 
hitherto  existed  alongside  the  ethical,  and  had  fettered 
and  warped  it. 

Up  till  now  the  ethical  spirit  of  the  religion  of 
Jehovah^  had  to  struggle  with  two  beliefs  which  we  can 
trace  back  to  the  Semitic  origins  of  the  religion — the 
belief,  namely,  that,  as  the  national  God,  Jehovah  would 
always  defend  their  political  interests,  irrespective  of 
morality ;  and  the  belief  that  a  ceremonial  of  rites  and 
sacrifices  was  indispensable  to  religion.  These  prin- 
ciples were  mutual :  as  the  deity  was  bound  to  succour 
the  people,  so  were  the  people  bound  to  supply  the 
•deity  with  gifts,  and  the  more  of  these  they  brought 
the  more  they  made  sure  of  his  favours.  Such  views 
were  not  absolutely  devoid  of  moral  benefit.  In  the 
formative  period  of  the  nation  they  had  contributed 
both  discipline  and  hope.  But  of  late  they  had  be- 
tween them  engrossed  men's  hearts,  and  crushed  out 
of  religion  both  conscience  and  common-sense.  By  the 
first  of  them,  the  belief  in  Jehovah's  predestined  pro- 
tection of  Israel,  the  people's  eyes  were  so  holden  they 
could  not  see  how  threatening  were  the  times  ;  by  the 
other,  the  confidence  in  ceremonial,  conscience  was 
dulled,  and  that  immorality  permitted  which  they 
mingled  so  shamelessly  with  their  religious  zeal.  Now 
the  conscience  of  Amos  did  not  merely  protest  against 
the  predominance  of  the  two,  but  was  so  exclusive,  so 
spiritual,  that  it  boldly  banished  both  from  religion. 
Amos  denied  that  Jehovah  was  bound  to  save  His  people ; 


*  See  above,  p.  i8. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET  103 


he  affirmed  that  ritual  and  sacrifice  were  no  part  of  the 
service  He  demands  from  men.  This  is  the  measure 
of  originahty  in  our  prophet.  The  two  religious  prin- 
ciples which  were  inherent  in  the  very  fibre  of  Semitic 
religion,  and  which  till  now  had  gone  unchallenged  in 
Israel,  Amos  cast  forth  from  religion  in  the  name  of 
a  pure  and  absolute  righteousness.  On  the  one  hand, 
Jehovah's  peculiar  connection  with  Israel  meant  no  more 
than  jealousy  for  their  holiness  :  You  only  have  I  known 
of  all  the  families  of  the  earthy  therefore  will  I  visit  upon 
you  all  your  iniquities}  And,  on  the  other  hand,  all  their 
ceremonial  was  abhorrent  to  Him  :  /  hate^  I  despise 
your  festivals,  .  .  .  Though  ye  offer  Me  burnt  offerings  and 
yourmeal  offerings  J I  will  not  accept  them,  .  ,  .  Take  thou 
away  from  Me  the  noise  of  thy  songs;  I  will  not  hear 
the  music  of  thy  viols.  But  let  justice  run  down  as 
waters^  and  righteousness  as  a  perennial  stream.^ 

It  has  just  been  said  that  emphasis  upon  morality  as 
the  sum  of  religion,  to  the  exclusion  of  sacrifice,  is  the 
most  original  element  in  the  prophecies  of  Amos.  He 
himself,  however,  does  not  regard  this  as  proclaimed 
for  the  first  time  in  Israel,  and  the  precedent  he  quotes 
is  so  illustrative  of  the  sources  of  his  inspiration  th^ 
we  do  well  to  look  at  it  for  a  little.  In  the  verse  next 
to  the  one  last  quoted  he  reports  these  words  of  God  : 
Did  ye  offer  unto  Me  sacrifices  and  gifts  in  the  wilderness^ 
for  forty  years,  O  house  of  Israel  ?  An  extraordinary 
challenge  I  From  the  present  blind  routine  of  sacrifice 
Jehovah  appeals  to  the  beginning  of  His  relations  with 
the  nation :  did  they  then  perform  such  services  to 
Him  ?  Of  course,  a  negative  answer  is  expected.  No 
other  agrees  with  the  main  contention  of  the  passage. 


'  iii.  a. 


•  T,  21  a: 


I04 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


In  the  wilderness  Israel  had  not  ofTered  sacrifices  and 
gifts  to  Jehovah.  Jeremiah  quotes  a  still  more  explicit 
word  of  Jehovah  :  /  spake  not  unto  your  fathers  in  the 
day  that  I  brought  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egvpt  con- 
cerning burnt  offerings  and  sacrifices:  but  this  thing  I 
commanded  them,  saying.  Obey  My  voice,  and  I  will  be 
your  God,  and  ye  shall  be  My  people} 

To  these  Divine  statements  we  shall  not  be  able  to 
do  justice  if  we  hold  by  the  traditional  view  that  the 
Levitical  legislation  was  proclaimed  in  the  wilderness. 
Discount  that  legislation,  and  the  statements  become 
clear.  It  is  true,  of  course,  that  Israel  must  have  had 
a  ritual  of  some  kind  from  the  first ;  and  that  both  in 
the  wilderness  and  in  Canaan  their  spiritual  leaders 
must  have  performed  sacrifices  as  if  these  were  ac- 
ceptable to  Jehovah.  But  even  so  the  Divine  words 
wnicL  4mos  and  Jeremiah  quote  are  historically  cor- 
rect; for  while  the  ethical  contents  of  the  religion 
of  Jehovah  were  its  original  and  essential  contents — 
/  commanded  them,  saying,  Obey  My  voice — the  ritual 
was  but  a  modification  of  the  ritual  common  to  all 
Semites;  and  ever  since  the  occupation  of  the  land, 
it  had,  through  the  infection  of  the  Canaanite  rites  on 
the  high  places,  grown  more  and  more  Pagan,  both 
in  its  functions  and  in  the  ideas  which  these  were  sup- 
posed to  express.^  Amos  was  right.  Sacrifice  had 
never  been  the  Divine,  the  revealed  element  in  the 
religion  of  Jehovah.  Nevertheless,  before  Amos  no 
prophet  in  Israel  appears  to  have  said  so.  And  what 
enabled  this  man  in  the  eighth  century  to  offer  testi- 
mony,  so  novel  but  so  true,  about  the  far-away  begin- 
nings of  his  people^s  religion  in  the  fourteenth,  was 


*  Jer.  vii.  22  f. 


^  See  above,  p.  23. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET  105 


plainly  neither  tradition  nor  historical  research,  but  an 
overwhelming  conviction  of  the  spiritual  and  moral 
character  of  God — of  Him  who  had  been  Israelis  God 
both  then  and  now,  and  whose  righteousness  had  been, 
just  as  much  then  as  now,  exalted  above  all  purely 
national  interests  and  all  susceptibility  to  ritual.  When 
we  thus  see  the  prophet's  knowledge  of  the  Living 
God  enabling  him,  not  only  to  proclaim  an  ideal  of 
religion  more  spiritual  than  Israel  had  yet  dreamed, 
but  to  perceive  that  such  an  ideal  had  been  the  essence 
of  the  religion  of  Jehovah  from  the  first,  we  under- 
stand how  thoroughly  Amos  was  mastered  by  that 
knowledge.  If  we  need  any  further  proof  of  his 
"possession"  by  the  character  of  God,  we  find  it  in 
those  phrases  in  which  his  own  consciousness  dis- 
appears, and  we  have  no  longer  the  herald's  report  of 
the  Lord's  words,  but  the  very  accents  of  the  Lord  Him- 
self, fraught  with  personal  feeling  of  the  most  intense 
quality.  /  Jehovah  hate^  I  despise  your  feast  days.  .  .  . 
Take  thou  away  from  Me  the  noise  of  thy  songs;  I 
will  not  hear  the  music  of  thy  viols}  .  .  .  /  abhor  the 
arrogance  of  Jacobs  and  hate  his  palaces}  •  .  .  The  eyes 
of  the  Lord  Jehovah  are  upon  the  sinful  kingdom?  .  .  . 
Jehovah  swear eth^  I  will  never  forget  any  of  their  works} 
Such  sentences  reveal  a  Deity  who  is  not  only  mani- 
fest Character,  but  surgent  and  importunate  Feeling. 
We  have  traced  the  prophet's  word  to  its  ultimate  source. 
It  springs  from  the  righteousness,  the  vigilance,  the 
urgency  of  the  Eternal.  The  intellect,  imagination 
and  heart  of  Amos — the  convictions  he  has  inherited 
from  his  people's  past,  his  conscience  of  their  evil  hfe 
to-day,  his  impressions  of  current  and  coming  history — 


*  T,  21-23. 


■  vi.  8. 


•  ix.  8. 


*  viii.  7, 


io6 


THE  TWELVE  PROPITETS 


are  all  enforced  and  illuminated,  all  made  impetuous 
and  radiant,  by  the  Spirit,  that  is  to  say  the  Purpose 
and  the  Energy,  of  the  Living  God.  Therefore,  as  he 
says  in  the  title  of  his  book,  or  as  some  one  says  for 
him,  Amos  saw  his  words.  They  stood  out  objective 
to  himself.  And  they  were  not  mere  sound.  They 
glowed  and  burned  with  God. 

When  we  realise  this,  we  feel  how  inadequate  it  is 
to  express  prophecy  in  the  terms  of  evolution.  No 
doubt,  as  we  have  seen,  the  ethics  and  religion  of  Amos 
represent  a  large  and  measurable  advance  upon  those 
of  earlier  Israel.  And  yet  with  Amos  we  do  not  seem 
so  much  to  have  arrived  at  a  new  stage  in  a  Process,  as 
to  have  penetrated  to  the  Idea  which  has  been  behind 
the  Process  from  the  beginning.  The  change  and 
growth  of  Israel's  religion  are  realities — their  fruits  can 
be  seen,  defined,  catalogued — but  a  greater  reality  is 
the  unseen  Purpose  which  impels  them.  They  have 
been  expressed  only  now.  He  has  been  unchanging 
from  old  and  for  ever — from  the  first  absolute  righteous- 
ness in  Himself,  and  absolute  righteousness  in  His 
demands  from  men. 

3.  The  Prophet  and  his  Ministry. 

Amos  vii.,  viii.  1-4. 

We  have  seen  the  preparation  of  the  Man  for  the 
Word ;  we  have  sought  to  trace  to  its  source  the  Word 
which  came  to  the  Man.  It  now  remains  for  us  to 
follow  the  Prophet,  Man  and  Word  combined,  upon 
his  Ministry  to  the  people. 

For  reasons  given  in  a  previous  chapter,*  there  must 


»  Chap,  v.,  p.  71. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET  107 


always  be  some  doubt  as  to  the  actual  course  of  the 
ministry  of  Amos  before  his  appearance  at  Bethel 
Most  authorities,  however,  agree  that  the  visions  re- 
counted in  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  chapter  form 
the  substance  of  his  address  at  Bethel,  which  was 
interrupted  by  the  priest  Amaziah.  These  visions 
furnish  a  probable  summary  of  the  prophet's  experience 
up  to  that  point.  While  they  follow  the  same  course, 
which  we  trace  in  the  two  series  of  oracles  that  now 
precede  them  in  the  book,  the  ideas  in  them  are  less 
elaborate.  At  the  same  time  it  is  evident  that  Amos 
must  have  already  spoken  upon  other  points  than  those 
which  he  puts  into  the  first  three  visions.  For  instance, 
Amaziah  reports  to  the  king  that  Amos  had  explicitly 
predicted  the  exile  of  the  whole  people  ^ — a  conviction 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  prophet  reached  only 
after  some  length  of  experience.  It  is  equally  certain 
that  Amos  must  have  already  exposed  the  sins  of  the 
people  in  the  light  of  the  Divine  righteousness.  Some 
of  the  sections  of  the  book  which  deal  with  this  subject 
appear  to  have  been  originally  spoken ;  and  it  is  un- 
natural to  suppose  that  the  prophet  announced  the 
chastisements  of  God  without  having  previously  justified 
these  to  the  consciences  of  men. 

If  this  view  be  correct,  Amos,  having  preached  for 
some  time  to  Israel  concerning  the  evil  state  of  society, 
appeared  at  a  great  religious  festival  in  Bethel, 
determined  to  bring  matters  to  a  crisis,  and  to  an- 
nounce the  doom  which  his  preaching  threatened  and 
the  people's  continued  impenitence  made  inevitable. 
Mark  his  choice  of  place  and  of  audience.  It  was  no 
mere  king  he  aimed  at.    Nathan  had  dealt  with  David, 


*  vii.  II. 


io8  THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Cad  with  Solomon,  Elijah  with  Ahab  and  Jezebel.  But 
Amos  sought  the  people,  them  with  whom  resided  the 
real  forces  and  responsibilities  of  life :  the  wealth,  the 
social  fashions,  the  treatment  of  the  poor,  the  spirit  of 
worship,  the  ideals  of  religion.*  And  Amos  sought 
the  people  upon  what  was  not  only  a  great  popular 
occasion,  but  one  on  which  was  arrayed,  in  all  pomp 
and  lavishness,  the  very  system  he  essayed  to  over- 
throw. The  religion  of  his  time — religion  as  mere 
ritual  and  sacrifice — was  what  God  had  sent  him  to 
beat  down,  and  he  faced  it  at  its  headquarters,  and 
upon  one  of  its  high  days,  in  the  royal  and  popular 
sanctuary  where  it  enjoyed  at  once  the  patronage 
of  the  crown,  the  lavish  gifts  of  the  rich  and  the 
thronged  devotion  of  the  multitude.  As  Savonarola  at 
the  Duomo  in  Florence,  as  Luther  at  the  Diet  of  Worms, 
as  our  Lord  Himself  at  the  feast  in  Jerusalem,  so  was 
Amos  at  the  feast  in  Bethel.  Perhaps  he  was  still 
more  lonely.  He  speaks  nowhere  of  having  made  a 
disciple,  and  in  the  sea  of  faces  which  turned  on  him 
when  he  spoke,  it  is  probable  that  he  could  not  wel- 
come a  single  ally.  They  were  officials,  or  interested 
traders,  or  devotees;  he  was  a  foreigner  and  a  wild 
man,  with  a  word  that  spared  the  popular  dogma  as 
little  as  the  royal  prerogative.  Well  for  him  was  it 
that  over  all  those  serried  ranks  of  authority,  those 
fanatic  crowds,  that  lavish  splendour,  another  vision 
commanded  his  eyes.  /  saw  the  Lord  standing  over 
tJte  altar^  and  He  said,  Smite. 

Amos  told  the  pilgrims  at  Bethel  that  the  first  events 
of  his  time  in  which  he  felt  a  purpose  of  God  in 


■  On  the  ministry  of  eighth-century  prophets  to  the  people  see 
the  author's  Isaiah^  I.,  p.  119. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET  109 


harmony  with  his  convictions  about  Israel's  need  of 
punishment  were  certain  calamities  of  a  physical  kind. 
Of  these,  which  in  chapter  iv.  he  describes  as  succes- 
sively drought,  blasting,  locusts,  pestilence  and  earth- 
quake, he  selected  at  Bethel  only  two — locusts  and 
drought — and  he  began  with  the  locusts.  It  may  have 
been  either  the  same  visitation  as  he  specifies  in 
chapter  iv.,  or  a  previous  one ;  for  of  all  the  plagues 
of  Palestine  locusts  have  been  the  most  frequent, 
occurring  every  six  or  seven  years.  Thus  the  Lord 
Jehovah  caused  me  to  see:  and^  behold^  a  brood^  of  locusts 
at  the  beginning  of  the  coming  up  of  the  spring  crops.  In 
the  Syrian  year  there  are  practically  two  tides  of 
verdure:  one  which  starts  after  the  early  rains  of 
October  and  continues  through  the  winter,  checked  by 
the  cold ;  and  one  which  comes  away  with  greater  force 
under  the  influence  of  the  latter  rains  and  more  genial 
airs  of  spring.^  Of  these  it  was  the  later  and  richer 
which  the  locusts  had  attacked.  And^  behold,  it  was 
after  the  king^s  mowings.  These  seem  to  have  been 
a  tribute  which  the  kings  of  Israel  levied  on  the  spring 
herbage,  and  which  the  Roman  governors  of  Syria  used 
annually  to  impose  in  the  month  Nisan.^  After  the 
king^s  mowings  would  be  a  phrase  to  mark  the  time 
when  everybody  else  might  turn  to  reap  their  green 


*  So  LXX.»  fcUowed  by  Hitzig  and  Wellhausen,  by  reading  for 

'  Cf.  Hist,  Gtography  of  the  Holy  Landj  pp.  64  ff.  The  word  trans- 
lated spring  crop  above  is  J^p^,  and  from  the  same  root  as  the  name 
of  the  latter  rain,  which  falls  in  the  end  of  March  or  begin- 

ning of  ApriL  Cf.  Zeitschrift  des  deutschen  Paldstina-Vereins^  IV.  83  ; 
VIII.  62. 

■  Cf.  I  Kings  xviii.  5  with  i  Sam.  vii.  15,  17;  i  Kings  iv.  7  fit 
Sec  Robertson  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites^  228. 


no 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


stuff.     It  was  thus  the  very  crisis  of  the  year  when 

the  locusts  appeared ;  the  April  crops  devoured,  there 
was  no  hope  of  further  fodder  till  December.  Still, 
the  calamity  had  happened  before,  and  had  been  sur- 
vived ;  a  nation  so  vigorous  and  wealthy  as  Israel  was 
under  Jeroboam  II.  need  not  have  been  frightened 
to  death.  But  Amos  felt  it  with  a  conscience.  To 
him  it  was  the  beginning  of  that  destruction  of  his 
people  which  the  spirit  within  him  knew  that  their  sin 
had  earned.  So  came  to  pass,  when  the  locusts  had 
made  an  end  of  devouring  the  verdure  of  the  earthy  that 
I  said,  Remit,  I  pray  Thee,  or  pardon — a  proof  that  there 
already  weighed  on  the  prophet's  spirit  something  more 
awful  than  loss  of  grass — how  shall  Jacob  rise  again  ? 
for  he  is  little}  The  prayer  was  heard.  Jehovah  re^ 
pented  for  this :  It  shall  not  be,  said  Jehovah.  The 
unnameable  //  must  be  the  same  as  in  the  frequent 
phrase  of  the  first  chapter :  /  will  not  turn  It  back — 
namely,  the  final  execution  of  doom  on  the  people's  sin. 
The  reserve  with  which  this  is  mentioned,  both  while 
there  is  still  chance  for  the  people  to  repent  and  after 
it  has  become  irrevocable,  is  very  impressive. 

The  next  example  which  Amos  gave  at  Bethel  of 
his  permitted  insight  into  God's  purpose  was  a  great 
drought.  Thus  the  Lord  Jehovah  made  me  to  see :  and, 
behold,  the  Lord  Jehovah  was  calling  fire  into  the  quarrel} 
There  was,  then,  already  a  quarrel  between  Jehovah 

'  LXX. :  Who  shall  raise  up  Jacob  again  ? 

■  So  Professor  A.  B.  Davidson.  But  the  grammar  might  equally 
well  afford  the  rendering  one  calling  that  the  Lord  will  punish  with 
the  firey  the  h  of  nn^  marking  the  introduction  of  indirect  speech 
(cf.  Ewald,  §  338a).  But  Hitzig  for  Nip  reads  mp  (Deut.  xxv.  18), 
to  occur,  happen.  So  similarly  Wellhausen,  es  nahte  sich  au  strafen 
mit  Feuer  der  Herr  Jahve.  All  these  renderings  yield  practically  the 
^me  meanini^. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET  in 


and  His  people — another  sign  that  the  prophet's  moral 
conviction  of  IsraeFs  sin  preceded  the  rise  of  the  events 
in  which  he  recognised  its  punishment.  And  the  fire 
devoured  the  Great  Deep^  yea^  it  was  about  to  devour  the 
land}  Severe  drought  in  Palestine  might  well  be 
described  as  fire,  even  when  it  was  not  accompanied 
by  the  flame  and  smoke  of  those  forest  and  prairie  fires 
which  Joel  describes  as  its  consequences.^  But  to  have 
the  full  fear  of  such  a  drought,  we  should  need  to 
feel  beneath  us  the  curious  world  which  the  men  of 
those  days  felt.  To  them  the  earth  rested  in  a  great 
deep,  from  whose  stores  all  her  springs  and  fountains 
burst.  When  these  failed  it  meant  that  the  unfathomed 
floods  below  were  burnt  up.  But  how  fierce  the  flame 
that  could  effect  this  1  And  how  certainly  able  to 
devour  next  the  solid  land  which  rested  above  the  deep 
— the  very  Portion^  assigned  by  God  to  His  people. 
Again  Amos  interceded  :  Lord  Jehovah,  I  pray  Thee  for^ 
bear:  how  shall  Jacob  rise?  for  he  is  little.  And  for 
the  second  time  Jacob  was  reprieved.  Jehovah  repented 
for  this :  //  also  shall  not  come  to  pass,  said  the  Lord 
Jehovah, 

We  have  treated  these  visions,  not  as  the  imagina- 
tion or  prospect  of  possible  disasters,*  but  as  insight  into 
the  meaning  of  actual  plagues.    Such  a  treatment  is 

*  A.  B.  Davidson,  Syntax,  §  57,  Rem.  I.  •  i.  19  f. 

■  Cf.  Micah  ii.  3.  p^n  is  the  word  used,  and  according  to  the 
motive  given  above  stands  v^^ell  for  the  cUmax  of  the  fire's  destructive 
work.  This  meets  the  objection  of  Wellhausen,  who  proposes  to 
omit  pjrij  because  the  heat  does  not  dry  up  first  the  great  deep  and 
then  the  fields  {Ackerjlur).  This  is  to  mistake  the  obvious  point  of 
the  sentence.  The  drought  was  so  great  that,  after  the  fountains  were 
exhausted,  it  seemed  as  if  the  solid  framework  of  the  land,  described 
with  very  apt  pathos  as  the  Portion^  would  be  the  next  to  disappear. 
Some  take  p^H  as  divided^  therefore  cultivated,  ground. 

*  So  for  instance,  Von  Orelli« 


113 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


justified,  not  only  by  the  invariable  habit  of  Amos  to 
deal  with  real  facts,  but  also  by  the  occurrence  of 
these  same  plagues  among  the  series  by  which,  as  we 
are  told,  God  had  already  sought  to  move  the  people 
to  repentance.^  The  general  question  of  sympathy 
between  such  purely  physical  disasters  and  the  moral 
evil  of  a  people  we  may  postpone  to  another  chapter, 
confining  ourselves  here  to  the  part  played  in  the 
events  by  the  prophet  himself. 

Surely  there  is  something  wonderful  in  the  attitude 
of  this  shepherd  to  the  fires  and  plagues  that  Nature 
sweeps  upon  his  land.  He  is  ready  for  them.  And  he 
is  ready  not  only  by  the  general  feeling  of  his  time  that 
such  things  happen  of  the  wrath  of  God.  His  sovereign 
and  predictive  conscience  recognises  them  as  her 
ministers.  They  are  sent  to  punish  a  people  whom 
she  has  already  condemned.  Yet,  unlike  Elijah,  Amos 
does  not  summon  the  drought,  nor  even  welcome  its 
arrival.  How  far  has  prophecy  travelled  since  the 
violent  Tishbite  I  With  all  his  conscience  of  Israel's 
sin,  Amos  yet  prays  that  their  doom  may  be  turned. 
We  have  here  some  evidence  of  the  struggle  through 
which  these  later  prophets  passed,  before  they  accepted 
their  awful  messages  to  men.  Even  Amos,  desert-bred 
and  living  aloof  from  Israel,  shrank  from  the  judgment 
which  it  was  his  call  to  publish.  For  two  moments — 
they  would  appear  to  be  the  only  two  in  his  ministry — 
his  heart  contended  with  his  conscience,  and  twice  he 
entreated  God  to  forgive.  At  Bethel  he  told  the  people 
all  this,  in  order  to  show  how  unwillingly  he  took  up 
his  duty  against  them,  and  how  inevitable  he  found 
that  duty  to  be.  But  still  more  shall  we  learn  from  his 
tale,  if  we  feel  in  his  words  about  the  smallness  of 


'  Chap.  iv. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET 


Jacob,  not  pity  only,  but  sympathy.  We  shall  learn 
that  prophets  are  never  made  solely  by  the  bare  word 
of  God,  but  that  even  the  most  objective  and  judicial 
of  them  has  to  earn  his  title  to  proclaim  judgment 
by  suffering  with  men  the  agony  of  the  judgment  he 
proclaims.  Never  to  a  people  came  there  a  true 
prophet  who  had  not  first  prayed  for  them.  To  have 
entreated  for  men,  to  have  represented  them  in  the 
highest  courts  of  Being,  is  to  have  deserved  also  supreme 
judicial  rights  upon  them.  And  thus  it  is  that  our 
Judge  at  the  Last  Day  shall  be  none  other  than  our 
great  Advocate  who  continually  maketh  intercession 
for  us.  It  is  prayer,  let  us  repeat,  which,  while  it  gives 
us  all  power  with  God,  endows  us  at  the  same  time 
with  moral  rights  over  men.  Upon  his  mission  of 
judgment  we  shall  follow  Amos  with  the  greater 
sympathy  that  he  thus  comes  forth  to  it  from  the 
mercy-seat  and  the  ministry  of  intercession. 

The  first  two  visions  which  Amos  told  at  Bethel 
were  of  disasters  in  the  sphere  of  nature,  but  his  third 
lay  in  the  sphere  of  politics.  The  two  former  were,  in 
their  completeness  at  least,  averted ;  and  the  language 
Amos  used  of  them  seems  to  imply  that  he  had  not 
even  then  faced  the  possibility  of  a  final  overthrow. 
He  took  for  granted  Jacob  was  to  rise  again :  he  only 
feared  as  to  how  this  should  be.  But  the  third  vision 
is  so  final  that  the  prophet  does  not  even  try  to  intercede. 
Israel  is  measured,  found  wanting  and  doomed.  Assyria 
is  not  named,  but  is  obviously  intended  ;  and  the  fact 
that  the  prophet  arrives  at  certainty  with  regard  to  the 
doom  of  Israel,  just  when  he  thus  comes  within  sight 
of  Assyria,  is  instructive  as  to  the  influence  exerted  on 
prophecy  by  the  rise  of  that  empire.^ 

•  Sec  Chap.  IV.,  p.  51. 
VOL.  I.  g 


114 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Thus  He  gave  me  to  see :  and^  behold^  the  Lord  had 
taken  His  station — 'tis  a  more  solemn  word  than  the 
stood  of  our  versions — upon  a  city  wall  built  to  the 
plummet^  and  in  His  hand  a  plummet.  And  Jehovah 
said  unto  me^  What  art  thou  seeing^  Amos?  The 
question  surely  betrays  some  astonishment  shown  by 
the  prophet  at  the  vision  or  some  difficulty  he  felt  in 
making  it  out.  He  evidently  does  not  feel  it  at  once, 
as  the  natural  result  of  his  own  thinking  :  it  is  objective 
and  strange  to  him  ;  he  needs  time  to  see  into  it.  And 
I  saidf  A  plummet.  And  the  Lord  said^  Behold^  I  am 
setting  a  plummet  in  the  midst  of  My  people  Israel.  I 
will  not  again  pass  them  over.  To  set  a  measuring  line 
or  a  line  with  weights  attached  to  any  building  means 
to  devote  it  to  destruction  ;  ^  but  here  it  is  uncertain 
whether  the  plummet  threatens  destruction,  or  means 
that  Jehovah  will  at  last  clearly  prove  to  the  prophet 
the  msufferable  obliquity  of  the  fabric  of  the  nation's  life, 
originally  set  straight  by  Himself — originally  a  wall  of  a 
plummet.  For  God's  judgments  are  never  arbitrary :  by  a 
standard  we  men  can  read  He  shows  us  their  necessity. 
Conscience  itself  is  no  mere  voice  of  authority:  it 
is  a  convincing  plummet,  and  plainly  lets  us  see  why 
we  should  be  punished.  But  whichever  interpretation 
we  choose,  the  result  is  the  same.  The  high  places  of 
Israel  shall  be  desolate^  and  the  sanctuaries  of  Isaac  laid 
waste  ;  and  I  will  rise  against  the  house  of  Jeroboam  with 
the  sword,     A  declaration  of  war!     Israel  is  to  be 


*  Literally  of  the  plummet^  an  obscure  expression.  It  cannot  mean 
plumb-straight,  for  the  wall  is  condemned. 

^  2  Kings  xxi.  1 3  :  I  will  stretch  over  Jerusalem  the  line  of  Samaria 
and  the  plummet  or  weight  (jjSjT^P)  of  the  house  of  Ahah,  Isa.  xxxiv, 
11:  He  shall  stretch  over  it  the  cord  of  confusion^  and  the  weights  (liter* 
ally  stones)  of  emptiness 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET  115 


invaded,  her  dynasty  overthrown.  Every  one  whc 
heard  the  prophet  would  know,  though  he  named  them 
not,  that  the  Assyrians  were  meant. 

It  was  apparently  at  this  point  that  Amos  was 
interrupted  by  Amaziah.  The  priest,  who  was  con- 
scious of  no  spiritual  power  with  which  to  oppose  the 
prophet,  gladly  grasped  the  opportunity  afforded  him  by 
the  mention  of  the  king,  and  fell  back  on  the  invariable 
resource  of  a  barren  and  envious  sacerdotalism :  He 
speaketh  against  Ccesar}  There  follows  one  of  the 
great  scenes  of  history — the  scene  which,  however  fast 
the  ages  and  the  languages,  the  ideals  and  the  deities 
may  change,  repeats  itself  with  the  same  two  actors. 
Priest  and  Man  face  each  other — Priest  with  King 
behind,  Man  with  God — and  wage  that  debate  in  which 
the  whole  warfare  and  progress  of  religion  consist. 
But  the  story  is  only  typical  by  being  real.  Many 
subtle  traits  of  human  nature  prove  that  we  have  here 
an  exact  narrative  of  fact.  Take  Amaziah's  report  to 
Jeroboam.  He  gives  to  the  words  of  the  prophet  just 
that  exaggeration  and  innuendo  which  betray  the  wily 
courtier,  who  knows  how  to  accentuate  a  general  denun- 
ciation till  it  feels  like  a  personal  attack.  And  yet,  like 
every  Caiaphas  of  his  tribe,  the  priest  in  his  exaggera- 
tions expresses  a  deeper  meaning  than  he  is  conscious 
of.  Amos — note  how  the  mere  mention  of  the  name 
without  description  proves  that  the  prophet  was  already 
known  in  Israel,  perhaps  was  one  on  whom  the  autho- 
rities had  long  kept  their  eye — Amos  hath  conspired 
against  thee — yet  God  was  his  only  fellow-conspirator  1 
— in  the  midst  of  the  house  of  Israel — this  royal  tempel 
at  Bethel.    The  land  is  not  able  to  hold  his  words — it 


'  John  xix.  12. 


Il6  THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


must  burst ;  -yes,  but  in  another  sense  than  thou 
meanest,  O  Caiaphas-Amaziah  !  For  thus  hath  Amos 
said^  By  the  sword  shall  Jeroboam  die — Amos  had 
spoken  only  of  the  dynasty,  but  the  twist  which 
Amaziah  lends  to  the  words  is  calculated — and  Israel 
going  shall  go  into  captivity  from  off  his  own  land. 
This  was  the  one  unvarnished  spot  in  the  report. 

Having  fortified  himself,  as  little  men  will  do,  by 
his  duty  to  the  powers  that  be,  Amaziah  dares  to  turn 
upon  the  prophet ;  and  he  does  so,  it  is  amusing  to 
observe,  with  that  tone  of  intellectual  and  moral  supe- 
riority which  it  is  extraordinary  to  see  some  men 
derive  from  a  merely  official  station  or  touch  with 
royalty.  Visionary^  begone  !  Get  thee  off  to  the  land  of 
Judah;  and  earn'^  thy  bread  there^  and  there  play  the 
prophet.  But  at  Bethel — mark  the  rising  accent  of  the 
voice — thou  shall  not  again  p7Vphesy,  The  King's  Sanc- 
tuary it  is  J  and  the  House  of  the  Kingdom?  With  the 
official  mind  this  is  more  conclusive  than  that  it  is  the 
House  of  God  I  In  fact  the  speech  of  Amaziah  justifies 
the  hardest  terms  which  Amos  uses  of  the  religion  of 
his  day.  In  all  this  priest  says  there  is  no  trace  of  the 
spiritual — only  fear,  pride  and  privilege.  Divine  truth 
is  challenged  by  human  law,  and  the  Word  of  God 
silenced  in  the  name  of  the  king. 

We  have  here  a  conception  of  religion,  which  is  not 
merely  due  to  the  unspiritual  character  of  the  priest 
who  utters  it,  but  has  its  roots  in  the  far  back  origins 
of  Israel's  religion.    The  Pagan  Semite  identified  abso- 


'  The  word  seer  is  here  used  in  a  contemptuous  sense,  and  has 
therefore  to  be  translated  by  some  such  word  as  visionary. 
'  Literally  eat. 

■  nD*?pO  n  ^3  —  that  is,  a  central  or  capital  sanctuary.  Cf. 
(l  Sam.  xxvii.  5),  city  of  the  kingdom^  i.e.  chief  or  capital  town. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET 


117 


lutely  State  and  Church  ;  and  on  that  identification  was 
based  the  rehgious  practice  of  early  Israel.  It  had 
many  healthy  results :  it  kept  religion  in  touch  with 
public  life;  order,  justice,  patriotism,  self-sacrifice  for 
the  common  weal,  were  devoutly  held  to  be  matters  of 
religion.  So  long,  therefore,  as  the  system  was  inspired 
by  truly  spiritual  ideals,  nothing  for  those  times  could 
be  better.  But  we  see  in  it  an  almost  inevitable 
tendency  to  harden  to  the  sheerest  officialism.  That 
it  was  more  apt  to  do  so  in  Israel  than  in  Judah,  is 
intelligible  from  the  political  origin  of  the  Northern 
Schism,  and  the  erection  of  the  national  sanctuaries 
from  motives  of  mere  statecraft.^  Erastianism  could 
hardly  be  more  flagrant  or  more  ludicrous  in  its  opposi- 
tion to  true  religion  than  at  Bethel.  And  yet  how  often 
have  the  ludicrousness  and  the  flagrancy  been  repeated, 
with  far  less  temptation  I  Ever  since  Christianity 
became  a  state  religion,  she  that  needed  least  to  use 
the  weapons  of  this  world  has  done  so  again  and 
again  in  a  thoroughly  Pagan  fashion.  The  attempts 
of  Churches  by  law  established,  to  stamp  out  by  law 
all  religious  dissent ;  or  where  such  attempts  were 
no  longer  possible,  the  charges  now  of  fanaticism  and 
now  of  sordidness  and  religious  shopkeeping,  which 
have  been  so  frequently  made  against  dissent  by  little 
men  who  fancied  their  state  connection,  or  their  higher 
social  position,  to  mean  an  intellectual  and  moral  superi- 
ority; the  absurd  claims  which  many  a  minister  of 
religion  makes  upon  the  homes  and  the  souls  of  a 
parish,  by  virtue  not  of  his  calling  in  Christ,  but  of  his 
position  as  official  priest  of  the  parish, — all  these  are 
the  sins  of  Amaziah,  priest  of  Bethel.    But  they  are  not 


I  Kings  xii.  26,  27. 


1x8 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


confined  to  an  established  Church.  The  Amaziahs  of 
dissent  are  also  very  many.  Wherever  the  official 
masters  the  spiritual ;  wherever  mere  dogma  or  tradition 
is  made  the  standard  of  preaching;  wherever  new 
doctrine  is  silenced,  or  programmes  of  reform  con- 
demned, as  of  late  years  in  Free  Churches  they  have 
sometimes  been,  not  by  spiritual  argument,  but  by  the 
ipse  dixit  of  the  dogmatist,  or  by  ecclesiastical  rule  or 
expediency, — there  you  have  the  same  spirit.  The 
dissenter  who  checks  the  Wcrd  of  God  in  the  name 
of  some  denominational  law  or  Ov^^na  is  as  Erastian  as 
the  churchman  who  would  crush  it,  like  Amaziah,  by 
invoking  the  state.  These  things  in  all  the  Churches 
are  the  beggarly  rudiments  of  Paganism  ;  and  religious 
reform  is  achieved,  as  it  was  that  day  at  Bethel,  by  the 
abjuring  of  officialism. 

Btit  Amos  answered  and  said  unto  Amaziahy  No 
prophet  /,  nor  prophets  son.  But  a  herdsman  ^  /,  and  a 
dresser  of  sycomores  ;  and  Jehovah  took  me  from  behind 
the  flockj  and  Jehovah  said  unto  me^  Goj  prophesy  unto  My 
people  Israel 

On  such  words  we  do  not  comment ;  we  give  them 
homage.  The  answer  of  this  shepherd  to  this  priest 
is  no  mere  claim  of  personal  disinterestedness.  It 
is  the  protest  of  a  new  order  of  prophecy,^  the  charter 
of  a  spiritual  religion.  As  we  have  seen,  the  sons 
of  the  prophets  were  guilds  of  men  who  had  taken  to 
prophesying  because  of  certain  gifts  of  temper  and 
natural  disposition,  and  they  earned  their  bread  by  the 

*  Prophet  and  prophet's  son  are  equivalent  terms,  the  latter  mean- 
ing one  of  the  professional  guilds  of  prophets.  There  is  no  need  to 
change  herdsman,  "^pl^,  as  Wellhausen  does,  into  Ipl^,  shepherd, 
the  word  used  in  i.  i. 

*  Cf.  Wellhausen,  Hist.^  Eng.  Ed.,  §  6  :  "  Amos  was  the  founder  and 
th<»  purest  type  of  a  new  order  of  prophecy.* 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  PROPHET 


119 


exercise  of  these.  Among  such  abstract  craftsmen 
Amos  will  not  be  reckoned.  He  is  a  prophet,  but  not 
of  the  kind  with  which  his  generation  was  familiar. 
An  ordinary  member  of  society,  he  has  been  suddenly 
called  by  Jehovah  from  his  civil  occupation  for  a 
special  purpose  and  by  a  call  which  has  not  necessarily 
to  do  with  either  gifts  or  a  profession.  This  was 
something  new,  not  only  in  itself,  but  in  its  conse- 
quences upon  the  general  relations  of  God  to  men. 
What  we  see  in  this  dialogue  at  Bethel  is,  therefore, 
not  merely  the  triumph  of  a  character,  however  heroic, 
but  rather  a  step  forward — and  that  one  of  the  greatest 
and  most  indispensable — in  the  history  of  religion. 

There  follows  a  denunciation  of  the  man  who 
sought  to  silence  this  fresh  voice  of  God.  Now  there- 
fore hearken  to  the  word  of  Jehovah  thou  that  sayest^ 
Prophesy  not  against  Israel^  nor  let  drop  thy  words 
against  the  house  of  Israel ;  therefore  thus  saith  Jehovah, 
.  .  .  Thou  hast  presumed  to  say ;  Hear  what  God  will 
say.  Thou  hast  dared  to  set  thine  office  and  system 
against  His  word  and  purpose.  See  how  they  must 
be  swept  away.  In  defiance  of  its  own  rules  the 
grammar  flings  forward  to  the  beginnings  of  its  clauses, 
each  detail  of  the  priest^s  estate  along  with  the  scene 
of  its  desecration.  Thy  wife  in  the  city— shall  play  the 
harlot;  and  thy  sons  and  thy  daughters  by  the  sword — 
shall  fall;  and  thy  land  by  the  measuring  rope — shall 
be  divided;  and  thou  in  an  unclean  land — shalt  die. 
Do  not  let  us  blame  the  prophet  for  a  coarse  cruelty 
in  the  first  of  these  details.  He  did  not  invent  it. 
With  all  the  rest  it  formed  an  ordinary  consequence 
of  defeat  in  the  warfare  of  the  times— an  inevitable 
item  of  that  general  overthrow  which,  with  bitter 
emphasis,  the  prophet  describes  in  Amaziah's  own 


I20 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


words  :  Israel  going  shall  go  into  captivity  from  off  his 
own  land. 

There  is  added  a  vision  in  line  with  the  three 
which  preceded  the  priest^s  interruption.  We  are 
therefore  justified  in  supposing  that  Amos  spoke  it 
also  on  this  occasion,  and  in  taking  it  as  the  close 
of  his  address  at  Bethel.  Then  the  Lord  Jehovah  gave 
me  to  see :  andy  behold ^  a  basket  of  KaitSj  that  is,  summer 
fruit.  And  He  saidj  What  art  thou  seeing y  Amos? 
And  1  saidj  A  basket  of  Kaits.  And  Jehovah  said 
unto  mey  The  Kets — the  End — has  come  upon  My  people 
Israel.  I  will  not  again  pass  them  over.  This  does  not 
carry  the  prospect  beyond  the  third  vision,  but  it  stamps 
its  finality,  and  there  is  therefore  added  a  vivid  realisation 
of  the  result.  By  four  disjointed  lamentations,  howls  the 
prophet  calls  them,  we  are  made  to  feel  the  last  shocks 
of  the  final  collapse,  and  in  the  utter  end  an  awful 
silence.  And  the  songs  of  the  temple  shall  be  changed 
into  howls  in  that  dayy  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  Multitude 
of  corpses!    In  every  place  I    He  hath  cast  out!  Hush! 

These  then  were  probably  the  last  words  which 
Amos  spoke  to  Israel.  If  so,  they  form  a  curious 
echo  of  what  was  enforced  upon  himself,  and  he  may 
have  meant  them  as  such.  He  was  cast  out ;  he  was 
silenced.  They  might  almost  be  the  verbal  repetition 
of  the  priest's  orders.  In  any  case  the  silence  is 
appropriate.  But  Amaziah  little  knew  what  power  he 
had  given  to  prophecy  the  day  he  forbade  it  to  speak. 
The  gagged  prophet  began  to  write ;  and  those  accents 
which,  humanly  speaking,  might  have  died  out  with  the 
songs  of  the  temple  of  Bethel  were  clothed  upon  with 
the  immortality  of  literature.  Amos  silenced  wrote  a 
book — first  of  prophets  to  do  so — and  this  is  the 
book  we  have  now  to  study. 


CHAPTER  VII 


ATROCITIES  AND  ATROCITIES 


Amos  i.  3 — ii. 


IKE  all  the  prophets  of  Israel,  Amos  receives 


J  J  oracles  for  foreign  nations.  Unlike  them,  how- 
ever, he  arranges  these  oracles  not  after,  but  before, 
his  indictment  of  his  own  people,  and  so  as  to  lead 
up  to  this.  His  reason  is  obvious  and  characteristic. 
If  his  aim  be  to  enforce  a  religion  independent  of  his 
people's  interests  and  privileges,  how  can  he  better  do 
so  than  by  exhibiting  its  principles  at  work  outside 
his  people,  and  then,  with  the  impetus  drained  from 
many  areas,  sweep  in  upon  the  vested  iniquities  01 
Israel  herself?  This  is  the  course  of  the  first  section 
of  his  book — chapters  i.  and  ii.  One  by  one  the 
neighbours  of  Israel  are  cited  and  condemned  in  the 
name  of  Jehovah  ;  one  by  one  they  are  told  they  must 
fall  before  the  still  unnamed  engine  of  the  Divine  Justice. 
But  when  Amos  has  stirred  his  people's  conscience  and 
imagination  by  his  judgment  of  their  neighbours'  sins, 
he  turns  with  the  same  formula  on  themselves.  Are 
they  morally  better  ?  Are  they  more  likely  to  resist 
Assyria?  With  greater  detail  he  shows  them  worse 
and  their  doom  the  heavier  for  all  their  privileges. 
Thus  is  achieved  an  oratorical  triumph,  by  tactics  in 


121 


122 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


harmony  with  the  principles  of  prophecy  and  remark- 
ably suited  to  the  tempers  of  that  time. 

But  Amos  achieves  another  feat,  which  extends  far 
beyond  his  own  day.  The  sins  he  condemns  in  the 
heathen  are  at  first  sight  very  different  from  those 
which  he  exposes  within  Israel.  Not  only  are  they 
sins  of  foreign  relations,  of  treaty  and  war,  while 
Israel's  are  all  civic  and  domestic ;  but  they  are  what  we 
call  the  atrocities  of  Barbarism — wanton  war,  massacre 
and  sacrilege — while  Israel's  are  rather  the  sins  of 
Civilisation — the  pressure  of  the  rich  upon  the  poor, 
the  bribery  of  justice,  the  seduction  of  the  innocent, 
personal  impurity,  and  other  evils  of  luxury.  So  great 
is  this  difference  that  a  critic  more  gifted  with  ingenuity 
than  with  insight  might  plausibly  distinguish  in  the 
section  before  us  two  prophets  with  two  very  different 
views  of  national  sin — a  ruder  prophet,  and  of  course 
an  earlier,  who  judged  nations  only  by  the  flagrant 
drunkenness  of  their  war,  and  a  more  subtle  prophet, 
and  of  course  a  later,  who  exposed  the  masked 
corruptions  of  their  religion  and  their  peace.  Such  a 
theory  would  be  as  false  as  it  would  be  plausible.  For 
not  only  is  the  diversity  of  the  objects  of  the  prophet's 
judgment  explained  by  this,  that  Amos  had  no  familiarity 
with  the  interior  life  of  other  nations,  and  could  only 
arraign  their  conduct  at  those  points  where  it  broke 
into  light  in  their  foreign  relations,  while  Israel's  civic 
life  he  knew  to  the  very  core.  But  Amos  had  besides 
a  strong  and  a  deliberate  aim  in  placing  the  sins  of 
civilisation  as  the  climax  of  a  list  of  the  atrocities  of 
barbarism.  He  would  recall  what  men  are  always 
forgetting,  that  the  former  are  really  more  cruel  and 
criminal  than  the  latter ;  that  luxury,  bribery  and 
intolerance,  the  oppression  of  the  poor,  the  corruption 


Amosi.3-n.]    ATROCITIES  AND  ATROCITIES 


of  the  innocent  and  the  silencing  of  the  prophet — what 
Christ  calls  offences  against  His  little  ones — are  even 
more  awful  atrocities  than  the  wanton  horrors  of 
barbarian  warfare.  If  we  keep  in  mind  this  moral 
purpose,  we  shall  study  with  more  interest  than  we 
could  otherwise  do  the  somewhat  foreign  details  of 
this  section.  Horrible  as  the  outrages  are  which 
Amos  describes,  they  were  repeated  only  yesterday  by 
Turkey  :  many  of  the  crimes  with  which  he  charges 
Israel  blacken  the  life  of  Turkey's  chief  accuser,  Great 
Britain. 

In  his  survey  Amos  includes  all  the  six  states  of 
Palestine  that  bordered  upon  Israel,  and  lay  in  the  way 
of  the  advance  of  Assyria — Aram  of  Damascus,  PhiUstia, 
Tyre  (for  Phoenicia),  Edom,  Ammon  and  Moab.  They 
are  not  arranged  in  geographical  order.  The  prophet 
begins  with  Aram  in  the  north-east,  then  leaps  to 
Philistia  in  the  south-west,  comes  north  again  to  Tyre, 
crosses  to  the  south-east  and  Edom,  leaps  Moab  to 
Ammon,  and  then  comes  back  to  Moab.  Nor  is  any 
other  explanation  of  his  order  visible.  Damascus  heads 
the  list,  no  doubt,  because  her  cruelties  had  been  most 
felt  by  Israel,  and  perhaps  too  because  she  lay  most 
open  to  Assyria.  It  was  also  natural  to  take  next  to 
Aram  Philistia,^  as  Israel's  other  greatest  foe ;  and 
nearest  to  Philistia  lay  Tyre.  The  three  south-eastern 
principalities  come  together.  But  there  may  have  been 
a  chronological  reason  now  unknown  to  us. 

The  authenticity  of  the  oracles  on  Tyre,  Edom  and 
Judah  has  been  questioned  :  it  will  be  best  to  discuss 
each  case  as  we  come  to  it. 

Each  of  the  oracles  is  introduced  by  the  formula  : 


'  As  is  done  in  chap.  vi.  2,  ix.  7. 


124 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Thus  saithy  or  hath  said^  Jehovah :  Because  of  three  crimes 
of  ,  ,  .  yeUj  because  of  four^  I  will  not  turn  It  back.  In 
harmony  with  the  rest  of  the  book/  Jehovah  is  repre- 
sented as  moving  to  punishment,  not  for  a  single  sin, 
but  for  repeated  and  cumulative  guilt.  The  unnamed 
//  which  God  will  not  recall  is  not  the  word  of  judg- 
ment, but  the  anger  and  the  hand  stretched  forth  to 
smite.^  After  the  formula,  an  instance  of  the  nation's 
guilt  is  given,  and  then  in  almost  identical  terms  he 
decrees  the  destruction  of  all  by  war  and  captivity. 
Assyria  is  not  mentioned,  but  it  is  the  Assyrian  fashion 
of  dealing  with  conquered  states  which  is  described. 
Except  in  the  case  of  Tyre  and  Edom,  the  oracles  con- 
clude as  they  have  begun,  by  asserting  themselves  to 
be  the  word  of  Jehovah^  or  of  Jehovah  the  Lord,  It  is 
no  abstract  righteousness  which  condemns  these  foreign 
peoples,  but  the  God  of  Israel,  and  their  evil  deeds  are 
described  by  the  characteristic  Hebrew  word  for  sin— 
crimes^  revolts  or  treasons  against  Him.* 

I.  Aram  of  Damascus. — Thus  hath  Jehovah  said: 
Because  of  three  crimes  of  Damascus,  yea,  because  of 
four,  I  will  not  turn  It  back;  for  that  they  threshed 
Gilead  with  iron — or  basalt  threshing-sledges.  The  word 
is  iron,  but  the  Arabs  of  to-day  call  basalt  iron ;  and 
the  threshing-sledges,  curved  slabs*  drawn  rapidly  by 
horses  over  the  heaped  corn,  are  studded  with  sharp 
basalt  teeth  that  not  only  thresh  out  the  grain,  but  chop 
the  straw  into  little  pieces.  So  cruelly  had  Gilead  been 
chopped  by  Hazael  and  his  son  Ben-Hadad  some  fifty 

•  So  against  Israel  in  chap.  iv. 

•  So  isa.  V.  2s:  nnoj  n>  niri  idn  ncj^ «!?   cf.  Ezet  ».  zzx 

•  D^I;K^D  f  CaUed  liih,  slab. 


Amosi.3-ii.]    ATROCITIES  AND  ATROCITIES 


or  forty  years  before  Amos  prophesied.^  Strongholds 
were  burned,  soldiers  slain  without  quarter,  children 
dashed  to  pieces,  and  women  with  child  put  to  a  most 
atrocious  end.^  But  /  shall  send  fire  on  the  house  of 
Hazael^  and  it  shall  devour  the  palaces  of  Ben-Hadad — 
these  names  are  chosen,  not  because  they  were  typical 
of  the  Damascus  dynasty,  but  because  they  were  the  very 
names  of  the  two  heaviest  oppressors  of  Israel.*  And  I 
will  break  the  bolt^  of  Damascus y  and  cut  off  the  inhabi- 
tant from  BiU ath'Aven — the  Valley  of  Idolatry,  so 
called,  perhaps,  by  a  play  upon  Bik'ath  On,^  presumably 
the  valley  between  the  Lebanons,  still  called  the  Bek'a, 
in  which  lay  Heliopohs  * — and  him  that  holdeth  the 
sceptre  from  Beth-Eden — some  royal  Paradise  in  that 
region  of  Damascus,  which  is  still  the  Paradise  of  the 
Arab  world — and  the  people  of  Aram  shall  go  captive  to 
Kir — Kir  in  the  unknown  north,  from  which  they  had 
come  : '  Jehovah  hath  said  it. 

2.  Philistia. — Thus  saith  Jehovah :  For  three  crimes  of 
Gaza  and  for  four  I  will  not  turn  It  backy  because  they 
led  captive  a  whole  captivity ^  in  order  to  deliver  them  up 
to  Edom,  It  is  difficult  to  see  what  this  means  if  not 
the  wholesale  depopulation  of  a  district  in  contrast  to 
the  enslavement  of  a  few  captives  of  war.    By  all  tribes 


*  These  Syrian  campaigns  in  Gilead  must  have  taken  place  between 
839  and  806,  the  long  interval  during  which  Damascus  enjoyed  free- 
dom from  Assyrian  invasion. 

*  2  Kings  viii.  12  ;  xiii.  7  :  of.  above,  p.  31. 

■  He  delivered  them  into  the  hand  of  Hazael  king  of  Aram^  and  into 
the  hand  of  Ben-Hadad  the  son  of  Hazael^  continually  (2  Kings  xiii.  3). 

*  No  need  here  to  render  prince,  as  some  do. 

*  So  the  LXX. 

*  The  present  Baalbek  (Baal  of  the  Bek'a  ?).  Wcllhausen  throws 
doubt  on  the  idea  that  Heliopolis  was  at  this  time  an  Aramean  town 

'  ix.  7. 


126 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


of  the  ancient  world,  the  captives  of  their  bow  and 
spear  were  regarded  as  legitimate  property :  it  was  no 
offence  to  the  public  conscience  that  they  should  be 
sold  into  slavery.  But  the  Philistines  seem,  without 
excuse  of  war,  to  have  descended  upon  certain  districts 
and  swept  the  whole  of  the  population  before  them, 
for  purely  commercial  purposes.  It  was  professional 
slave-catching.  The  Philistines  were  exactly  like  the 
Arabs  of  to-day  in  Africa — not  warriors  who  win  their 
captives  in  honourable  fight,  but  slave-traders,  pure  and 
simple.  In  warfare  in  Arabia  itself  it  is  still  a  matter 
of  conscience  with  the  wildest  nomads  not  to  ex- 
tinguish a  hostile  tribe,  however  bitter  one  be  against 
them.^  Gaza  is  chiefly  blamed  by  Amos,  for  she  was 
the  emporium  of  the  trade  on  the  border  of  the  desert, 
'  with  roads  and  regular  caravans  to  Petra  and  Elah  on 
the  Gulf  oi  Akaba,  both  of  them  places  in  Edom  and 
depots  for  the  traffic  with  Arabia.*  But  I  will  cut  off 
the  inhabitant  from  Ashdod,  and  the  holder  of  the  sceptre 
from  AskaloHf  and  I  will  turn  My  hand  upon  Ekron — 
four  of  the  five  great  Philistine  towns,  Gath  being 
already  destroyed,  and  never  again  to  be  mentioned 
with  the  others  ^ — and  the  last  of  the  Philistines  shall 
perish  :  Jehovah  hath  said  it. 

3  Tyre. — Thussaith  Jehovah:  Because  of  three  crimes 


*  Doughty:  Arabia  Deserta^  I.  335. 

•  On  the  close  connection  of  Edom  and  Gaza  see  HisU  Geog,^ 
pp.  182  fif. 

■  See  Hist,  Geog.y  pp.  194  fif.  Wellhausen  thinks  Gath  was  not 
yet  destroyed,  and  quotes  vi.  2;  Micah  i.  10,  14.  But  we  know  that 
Hazael  destroyed  it,  and  that  fact,  taken  in  conjunction  with  its  being 
the  only  omission  here  from  the  five  Philistine  towns,  is  evidence 
enough.  In  the  passages  quoted  by  Wellhausen  there  is  nothing  to 
the  contrary :  vi.  2  implies  that  Gath  has  faUep ;  Micah  u  Ip  U  the 
repetition  of     old  proverb. 


Amosi.3-il]    ATROCITIES  AND  ATROCITIES 


127 


of  Tyre  and  because  of  four  I  will  not  turn  It  back; 
for  that  they  gave  up  a  whole  captivity  to  Edom — the 
same  market  as  in  the  previous  charge — and  did  not 
remember  the  covenant  of  brethren.  We  do  not  know 
to  what  this  refers.  The  alternatives  are  three :  that 
the  captives  were  Hebrews  and  the  alliance  one  between 
Israel  and  Edom ;  that  the  captives  were  Hebrews 
and  the  alliance  one  between  Israel  and  Tyre;^  that 
the  captives  were  Phoenicians  and  the  alliance  the 
natural  brotherhood  of  Tyre  and  the  other  Phoenician 
towns.^  But  of  these  three  alternatives  the  first  is 
scarcely  possible,  for  in  such  a  case  the  blame  would 
have  been  rather  Edom's  in  buying  than  Tyre's  in 
selHng.  The  second  is  possible,  for  Israel  and  Tyre 
had  lived  in  close  alliance  for  more  than  two  cen- 
turies ;  but  the  phrase  covenant  of  brethren  is  not  so 
well  suited  to  a  league  between  two  tribes  who  felt 
themselves  to  belong  to  fundamentally  different  races,^ 
as  to  the  close  kinship  of  the  Phoenician  communities. 
And  although,  in  the  scrappy  records  of  Phoenician 
history  before  this  time,  we  find  no  instance  of  so  gross 
an  outrage  by  Tyre  on  other  Phoenicians,  it  is  quite 
possible  that  such  may  have  occurred.  During  next 
century  Tyre  twice  over  basely  took  sides  with  Assyria 
in  suppressing  the  revolts  of  her  sister  cities.*  Besides, 
the  other  Phoenician  towns  are  not  included  in  the 
charge.  We  have  every  reason,  therefore,  to  believe 
that  Amos  expresses  here  not  resentment  against  a 


*  Farrar,  53 ;  Puscy  on  ver.  9;  Pietschmann,  Gtschichte der  Phoniaitr^ 
298. 

'  To  which  Wellhausen  inclines. 

*  Gen.  X. 

*  Under  Asarhaddon,  678—676  B.C.,  and  Uter  under  Assurbanipul 
(Pictscbmann,  Gt%ch,^  pp.  302  f.). 


128 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


betrayal  of  Israel,  but  indignation  at  an  outrage  upon 
natural  rights  and  feelings  with  which  Israel's  own 
interests  were  not  in  any  way  concerned.  And  this 
also  suits  the  lofty  spirit  of  the  whole  prophecy.  But 
I  will  send  fire  upon  the  wall  of  Tyre^  and  it  shall  devour 
her  palaces.  .  .  . 

This  oracle  against  Tyre  has  been  suspected  by 
Wellhausen/  for  the  following  reasons :  that  it  is  of 
Tyre  alone,  and  silence  is  kept  regarding  the  other 
Phoenician  cities,  while  in  the  case  of  Philistia  other 
towns  than  Gaza  are  condemned  ;  that  the  charge  is  the 
same  as  against  Gaza ;  and  that  the  usual  close  to  the 
formula  is  wanting.  But  it  would  have  been  strange 
if  from  a  list  of  states  threatened  by  the  Assyrian 
doom  we  had  missed  Tyre,  Tyre  which  lay  in  the 
avenger's  very  path.  Again,  that  so  acute  a  critic  as 
Wellhausen  should  cite  the  absence  of  other  Phoenician 
towns  from  the  charge  against  Tyre  is  really  amazing, 
when  he  has  just  allowed  that  it  was  probably  against 
some  or  all  of  these  cities  that  Tyre's  crime  was 
committed.  How  could  they  be  included  in  the 
blame  of  an  outrage  done  upon  themselves  ?  The 
absence  of  the  usual  formula  at  the  close  may  perhaps 
be  explained  by  omission,  as  indicated  above.* 

4.  Edom. —  Thus  saith  Jehovah :  Because  of  three 
crimes  of  Edom  and  because  of  four  I  will  not  turn  It 
back;  for  that  he  pursued  with  the  sword  his  brother ^ 
who  cannot  be  any  other  than  Israel,  corrupted  his 
natural  feelings — literally  his  bowels  of  mercies — and 


*  And  he  omits  it  from  his  translation. 

*  So  far  from  such  an  omission  proving  that  the  oracle  is  an 
insertion,  is  it  not  more  probable  that  an  insertor  would  have  taken 
care  to  make  his  insertion  formally  correct  ? 


An.os5.3-n.]    ATROCITIES  AND  ATROCITIES 


129 


kept  aye  fretting^  his  anger ^  and  his  passion  he  watched — 
like  a  fire,  or  paid  heed  to  it — for  ever?  But  I  will 
send  fire  upon  Teman — the  South  Region  belonging  to 
Edom — and  it  shall  devour  the  palaces  of  Bo^rah — the 
Edomite  Bosrah,  south-east  of  Petra.^  The  Assyrians 
hrd  already  compelled  Edom  to  pay  tribute.* 

The  objections  to  the  authenticity  of  this  oracle  are 
more  serious  than  those  in  the  case  of  the  oracle  on 
Tyre.  It  has  been  remarked  ^  that  before  the  Jewish 
Exile  so  severe  a  tone  could  not  have  been  adopted 
by  a  Jew  against  Edom,  who  had  been  mostly  under 
the  yoke  of  Judah,  and  not  leniently  treated.  What 
were  the  facts  ?  Joab  subdued  Edom  for  David  with 
great  cruelty.®  Jewish  governors  were  set  over  the 
conquered  people,  and  this  state  of  affairs  seems  to 
have  lasted,  in  spite  of  an  Edomite  attempt  against 
Solomon,^  till  850.  In  Jehoshaphat's  reign,  873 — 850, 
there  was  no  king  of  Edonty  a  deputy  was  king,  who 
towards  850  joined  the  kings  of  Judah  and  Israel  in 
an  invasion  of  Moab  through  his  territory.*  But,  soon 
after  this  invasion  and  perhaps  in  consequence  of  its 
failure,  Edom  revolted  from  Joram  of  Judah  (849 — 842), 


*  There  seems  no  occasion  to  amend  with  Olshausen  to  the  kept 
of  Psalm  ciii.  9. 

*  Read  with  LXX.  PlVi^  IDCJ^,  though  throughout  the  verse  the 
LXX.  translation  is  very  vile. 

•  In  other  two  passages,  Bosrah,  the  city,  is  placed  in  parallel  not  to 
another  city,  but  just  as  here  to  a  whole  region  :  Isa.  xxxiv.  6,  where 
the  parallel  is  the  land  of  Edom,  and  Ixiii.  I,  where  it  is  Edom, 
There  is  therefore  no  need  to  take  Teman  in  our  passage  as  a  city, 
as  which  it  does  not  appear  before  Eusebius. 

*  Under  Rimman-nirari  III.  (812—783).  See  Buhl's  Gesch.  der 
Edomiier^  65  :  this  against  Wellhausen. 

•  Wellhausen,  in  loco.  *  I  Kings  xi.  14-25, 

•  a  Sam.  viii.  13,  with  I  Kings  xi.  16.       •  2  Kings  iii. 
VOL.  I.  9 


130 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


who  unsuccessfully  attempted  to  put  down  the  revolt.^ 
The  Edomites  appear  to  have  remained  independent 
for  fifty  years  at  least.  Amaziah  of  Judah  (797 — 779) 
smote  them,^  but  not  it  would  seem  into  subjection  ; 
for,  according  to  the  Chronicler,  Uzziah  had  to  win 
back  Elath  for  the  Jews  after  Amaziah*s  death.'  The 
history,  therefore,  of  the  relations  of  Judah  and  Edom 
before  the  time  of  Amos  was  of  such  a  kind  as  to 
make  credible  the  existence  in  Judah  at  that  time  of 
the  feeling  about  Edom  which  inspires  this  oracle. 
Edom  had  shown  just  the  vigilant,  implacable  hatred 
here  described.  But  was  the  right  to  blame  them 
for  it  Judah's,  who  herself  had  so  persistently  waged 
war,  with  confessed  cruelty,  against  Edom?  Could 
a  Judaean  prophet  be  just  in  blaming  Edom  and  saying 
nothing  of  Judah  ?  It  is  true  that  in  the  fifty  years  of 
Edom's  independence — the  period,  we  must  remember, 
from  which  Amos  seems  to  draw  the  materials  of  all 
his  other  charges — there  may  have  been  events  to 
justify  this  oracle  as  spoken  by  him ;  and  our  ignorance 
of  that  period  is  ample  reason  why  we  should  pause 
before  rejecting  the  oracle  so  dogmatically  as 
Wellhausen  does.  But  we  have  at  least  serious 
grounds  for  suspecting  it.  To  charge  Edom,  whom 
Judah  has  conquered  and  treated  cruelly,  with  restless 
hate  towards  Judah  seems  to  fall  below  that  high 
impartial  tone  which  prevails  in  the  other  oracles  of 
this  section.  The  charge  was  much  more  justifiable 
at  the  time  of  the  Exile,  when  Edom  did  behave 
shamefully  towards  Israel.'*  Wellhausen  points  out  that 
Teman  and  Bosrah  are  names  which  do  not  occur  in 


'  2  Kings  viii.  20-22.  ■  2  Chron,  xxvi.  2, 

•  2  Kings  xiv.  10.  *  See,  however,  Buhl,  op.  cit^  67. 


Amosl.3-ii.]    ATROCITIES  AND  ATROCITIES 


the  Old  Testament  before  the  Exile,  but  this  is  un- 
certain and  inconclusive.  The  oracle  wants  the  con- 
cluding formula  of  the  rest.^ 

5.  Ammon. — Thus  saith  Jehovah :  Because  of  three 
crimes  of  Ammon  and  because  of  four  I  will  not  turn  It 
back;  for  that  they  ripped  up  Gilead^s  women  with  child — 
in  order  to  enlarge  their  borders  I  For  such  an  end  they 
committed  such  an  atrocity  I  The  crime  is  one  that 
has  been  more  or  less  frequent  in  Semitic  warfare. 
Wellhausen  cites  several  instances  in  the  feuds  of  Arab 
tribes  about  their  frontiers.  The  Turks  have  been 
guilty  of  it  in  our  own  day.^  It  is  the  same  charge 
which  the  historian  of  Israel  puts  into  the  mouth  of 
Elisha  against  Hazael  of  Aram/  and  probably  the  war 
was  the  same ;  when  Gilead  was  simultaneously  attacked 
by  Arameans  from  the  north  and  Ammonites  from  the 
south.  But  I  will  set  fire  to  the  wall  of  Rabbah — Rab- 
bath-Ammon,  literally  chief  or  capital  of  Ammon — and 
it  shall  devour  her  palaces^  with  clamour  in  the  day  of 
battle^  with  tempest  in  the  day  of  storm.  As  we  speak  of 
''storming  a  city,"  Amos  and  Isaiah*  use  the  tempest 
to  describe  the  overwhelming  invasion  of  Assyria.  There 
follows  the  characteristic  Assyrian  conclusion :  And 
their  king  shall  go  into  captivity ,  he  and  his  princes^ 
together^  saith  Jehovah, 


*  It  is,  however,  no  reason  against  the  authenticity  of  the  oracle  to 
say  that  Edom  lay  outside  the  path  of  Assyria.  In  answer  to  that  see 
the  Assyrian  inscriptions,  e.g.  Asarhaddon's  :  cf.  above,  p.  129,  «.  4. 

*  Notably  in  the  recent  Armenian  massacres. 

*  2  Kings  viii.  12. 

*  xxviii.  2,  xxvii.  7,  8,  where  the  Assyrian  and  another  invasion  are 
both  described  in  terms  of  tempest. 

*  The  LXX.  reading,  their  priests  and  their  priuces^  must  be  due  to 
laKmg  Malcam  — //i^iV  king  as  Milcom —the  Ammonite  god.  Set 
Jcr.  xlix.  3. 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


6.  MoAB. — Thus  saith  Jehovah :  Because  of  three  crimes 
of  Moab  and  because  of  four  I  will  not  turn  It  back;  for 
that  he  burned  the  bones  of  the  king  of  Edom  to  lime} 
In  the  great  invasion  of  Moab,  about  850,  by  Israel, 
Judah  and  Edom  conjointly,  the  rage  of  Moab  seems  to 
have  been  directed  chiefly  against  Edom.^  Whether 
opportunity  to  appease  that  rage  occurred  on  the  with- 
drawal of  Israel  we  cannot  say.  But  either  then  or 
afterwards,  balked  of  their  attempt  to  secure  the  king 
of  Edom  alive,  Moab  wreaked  their  vengeance  on  his 
corpse,  and  burnt  his  bones  to  lime.  It  was,  in  the 
religious  belief  of  all  antiquity,  a  sacrilege  ;  yet  it  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  the  desecration  of  the  tomb — or  he 
would  have  mentioned  it — but  the  wanton  meanness  of 
the  deed,  which  Amos  felt.  And  I  will  send  fire  on  Moab^ 
and  it  shall  devour  the  palaces  of  The-Cities — Kerioth,' 
perhaps  the  present  Kureiyat,*  on  the  Moab  plateau 
where  Chemosh  had  his  shrine^ — and  in  tumult  shall 
Moab  die— to  Jeremiah  ®  the  Moabites  were  the  sons  of 
tumult — with  clamour  and  with  the  noise  of  the  war- 
trumpet.  And  I  will  cut  off  the  ruler- — literally  judge^ 
probably  the  vassal  king  placed  by  Jeroboam  II. — from 
her  ^  midst  J  and  all  his  ^  princes  will  I  slay  with  him : 
Jehovah  hath  said  it. 

These,  then,  are  the  charges  which  Amos  brings 
against  the  heathen  neighbours  of  Israel. 


•  "  Great  Csesar  dead  and  turned  to  clay- 

Might  stop  a  hole  to  turn  the  wind  away." 

•  2  Kings  iii.  26.    So  rightly  Pusey. 

■  Jer.  xlviii.  24  without  article,  but  in  41  with. 

•  Though  this  is  claimed  by  most  for  Kiriathainu 

•  Moabite  Stone,  1.  13.  '  The  land's. 

•  xlviii.  45.  •  The  king's. 


Amosi.3-ii.]    ATROCITIES  AND  ATROCITIES  133 

If  we  look  as  a  whole  across  the  details  through 
which  we  have  been  working,  what  we  see  is  a  picture 
of  the  Semitic  world  so  summary  and  so  vivid  that 
we  get  the  like  of  it  nowhere  else — the  Semitic  world 
in  its  characteristic  brokenness  and  turbulence ;  its 
factions  and  ferocities,  its  causeless  raids  and  quarrels, 
tribal  disputes  about  boundaries  flaring  up  into  the 
most  terrible  massacres,  vengeance  that  wreaks  itself 
alike  on  the  embryo  and  the  corpse — cutting  up  women 
with  child  in  Gilead,  and  burning  to  lime  the  bones  of  the 
king  of  Edom.  And  the  one  commerce  which  binds 
these  ferocious  tribes  together  is  the  slave-trade  in  its 
wholesale  and  most  odious  form. 

Amos  treats  none  of  the  atrocities  subjectively.  It 
is  not  because  they  have  been  inflicted  upon  Israel  that 
he  feels  or  condemns  them.  The  appeals  of  Israel 
against  the  tyrant  become  many  as  the  centuries  go 
on  ;  the  later  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  are  full  of  the 
complaints  of  God's  chosen  people,  conscious  of  their 
mission  to  the  world,  against  the  heathen,  who  prevented 
them  from  it.  Here  we  find  none  of  these  complaints, 
but  a  strictly  objective  and  judicial  indictment  of  the 
characteristic  crimes  of  heathen  men  against  each 
other ;  and  though  this  is  made  in  the  name  of  Jehovah, 
it  is  not  in  the  interests  of  His  people  or  of  any 
of  His  purposes  through  them,  but  solely  by  the 
standard  of  an  impartial  righteousness  which,  as  we 
are  soon  to  hear,  must  descend  in  equal  judgment  on 
Israel. 

Again,  for  the  moral  principles  which  Amos  enforces 
no  originality  can  be  claimed.  He  condemns  neither 
war  as  a  whole  nor  slavery  as  a  whole,  but  limits  his 
curse  to  wanton  and  deliberate  aggravations  of  them  : 
to  the  slave-trade  in  cold  blood,  in  violation  of  treaties 


i34 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


and  for  purely  commercial  ends ;  ^  to  war  for  trifling 
causes,  and  that  wreaks  itself  on  pregnant  women  and 
dead  men ;  to  national  hatreds,  that  never  will  be  still. 
Now  against  such  things  there  has  always  been  in  man- 
kind a  strong  conscience,  of  which  the  word  humanity  " 
is  in  itself  a  sufficient  proof.  We  need  not  here  inquire 
into  the  origin  of  such  a  common  sense — whether  it  be 
some  native  impulse  of  tenderness  which  asserts  itself 
as  soon  as  the  duties  of  self-defence  are  exhausted,  or 
some  rational  notion  of  the  needlessness  of  excesses, 
or  whether,  in  committing  these,  men  are  visited 
by  fear  of  retaliation  from  the  wrath  they  have  un- 
necessarily exasperated.  Certain  it  is,  that  warriors 
of  all  races  have  hesitated  to  be  wanton  in  their  war, 
and  have  foreboded  the  special  judgment  of  heaven 
upon  every  blind  extravagance  of  hate  or  cruelty. 
It  is  well  known  how  fey  "  the  Greeks  felt  the  inso- 
lence of  power  and  immoderate  anger ;  they  are  the  fatal 
element  in  many  a  Greek  tragedy.^  But  the  Semites 
themselves,  whose  racial  ferocity  is  so  notorious,  are 
not  without  the  same  feeling.  "  Even  the  Beduins'  old 
cruel  rancours  are  often  less  than  the  golden  piety  of 
the  wilderness.  The  danger  past,  they  can  think  of  the 
defeated  foemen  with  kindness,  .  .  .  putting  only  their 
trust  in  Ullah  to  obtain  the  like  at  need  for  themselves. 
It  is  contrary  to  the  Arabian  conscience  to  extinguish 
a  Kabila." '  Similarly  in  Israel  some  of  the  earliest 
ethical  movements  were  revolts  of  the  public  con- 
science against  horrible  outrages,  like  that,  for  instance, 


^  See  above,  p.  126. 

*  dv<T(T€pias  fih  tppLS  riKos  (^Eschylus,  Eumen.,  534):  cf.  Odysseyf 
xiv.  262 ;  xvii.  431. 

■  /,#.  a  tribe  ;  Doughty,  Arabia  Deserta^  I.  335. 


Amosi.3-ii.]    ATROCITIES  AND  ATROCITIES 


135 


done  by  the  Benjamites  of  Gibeah.^  Therefore  in  these 
oracles  on  his  wild  Semitic  neighbours  Amos  discloses 
no  new  ideal  for  either  tribe  or  individual.  Our  view 
is  confirmed  that  he  was  intent  only  upon  rousing 
the  natural  conscience  of  his  Hebrew  hearers  in  order 
to  engage  this  upon  other  vices  to  which  it  was  less 
impressionable — that  he  was  describing  those  deeds  of 
war  and  slavery,  whose  atrocity  all  men  admitted,  only 
that  he  might  proceed  to  bring  under  the  same  con- 
demnation the  civic  and  domestic  sins  of  Israel. 

We  turn  with  him,  then,  to  Israel.  But  in  his  book 
as  it  now  stands  in  our  Bibles,  Israel  is  not  imme- 
diately reached.  Between  her  and  the  foreign  nations 
two  verses  are  bestowed  upon  Judah :  Thus  saith 
Jehovah :  Because  of  three  crimes  of  Judah  and  because 
of  four  I  will  not  turn  It  back;  for  that  they  despised  the 
Torah  of  Jehovah^  and  His  statutes  they  did  not  observe^ 
and  their  falsehoods — false  gods — led  them  astray^  after 
which  their  fathers  walked.  But  I  will  send  fire  on 
Judah f  and  it  shall  devour  the  palaces  of  Jerusalem, 
These  verses  have  been  suspected  as  a  later  insertion,' 
on  the  ground  that  every  reference  to  Judah  in  the 
Book  of  Amos  must  be  late,  that  the  language  is  very 
formal,  and  that  the  phrases  in  which  the  sin  of  Judah 
is  described  sound  like  echoes  of  Deuteronomy.  The 
first  of  these  reasons  may  be  dismissed  as  absurd ; 
it  would  have  been  far  more  strange  if  Amos  had 


'  Judges  xix.,  xx. 

'  Duhm  was  the  first  to  publish  reasons  for  rejecting  the  passage 
{Theol.  der  Propheten^  1875,  p.  119),  but  Wellhauscn  had  already 
reached  the  same  conclusion  {Kleine  Propheten^  p.  71).  Oort  and 
Stade  adhere.  On  the  other  side  see  Robertson  Smith,  Prophets 
of  Israel,  39?  and  Kucnen,  who  adheres  to  Smith's  argument! 
(pndirtoek). 


136 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


never  at  all  referred  to  Judah.*  The  charges,  however, 
are  not  like  those  which  Amos  elsewhere  makes,  and 
though  the  phrases  may  be  quite  as  early  as  his 
time,^  the  reader  of  the  original,  and  even  the  reader 
of  the  English  version,  is  aware  of  a  certain  tameness 
and  vagueness  of  statement,  which  contrasts  remarkably 
with  the  usual  pungency  of  the  prophet's  style.  We 
are  forced  to  suspect  the  authenticity  of  these  verses. 

We  ought  to  pass,  then,  straight  from  the  third  to 
the  sixth  verse  of  this  chapter,  from  the  oracles  on 
foreign  nations  to  that  on  Northern  Israel.  It  is 
introduced  with  the  same  formula  as  they  are :  Thus 
saith  Jehovah :  Because  of  three  crimes  of  Israel  and 
because  of  four  I  will  not  turn  It  back.  But  there 
follow  a  greater  number  of  details,  for  Amos  has  come 
among  his  own  people  whom  he  knows  to  the  heart, 
and  he  applies  to  them  a  standard  more  exact  and  an 
obligation  more  heavy  than  any  he  could  lay  to  the 
life  of  the  heathen.  Let  us  run  quickly  through  the 
items  of  his  charge.  For  that  they  sell  an  honest  man  ^ 
for  silver,  and  a  needy  man  for  a  pair  of  shoes — pro- 
verbial, as  we  should  say  "for*  an  old  song" — who 
trample  to  the  dust  of  the  earth  the  head  of  the  poor — 
the  least  improbable  rendering  of  a  corrupt  passage  * 
— and  pervert  the  way  of  humble  men.    And  a  man  and 


'  "  It  is  plain  that  Amos  could  not  have  excepted  Judah  from  the 
universal  ruin  which  he  saw  to  threaten  the  whole  land;  or  at  all 
events  such  exception  would  have  required  to  be  expressly  made  on 
special  grounds." — Robertson  Smith,  Prophets^  398. 

2  Ibid, 

'  pn^,  righteous :  hardly,  as  most  commentators  take  it,  the  legally 
(as  distinguished  from  the  morally)  righteous ;  the  rich  cruelly  used 
their  legal  rights  to  sell  respectable  and  honest  members  of  society 
into  slavery, 

<  By  adapting  the  LXX.    So  far  as  we  know  Wellhausen  is  right 


Amosi.3-ii.]    ATROCITIES  AND  ATROCITIES 


137 


his  father  will  go  into  the  maid^  the  same  maid/  to 
desecrate  My  Holy  Name — without  doubt  some  public 
form  of  unchastity  introduced  from  the  Canaanite 
worship  into  the  very  sanctuary  of  Jehovah,  the  holy 
place  where  He  reveals  His  Name — and  on  garments 
given  in  pledge  they  stretch  themselves  by  every  altar ^  and 
the  wine  of  those  who  have  been  fined  they  drink  in  the 
house  of  their  God.  A  riot  of  sin  :  the  material  of  their 
revels  is  the  miseries  of  the  poor,  its  stage  the  house 
of  God  I  Such  is  religion  to  the  Israel  of  Amos'  day 
— indoors,  feverish,  sensual.  By  one  of  the  sudden 
contrasts  he  loves,  Amos  sweeps  out  of  it  into  God's 
ideal  of  religion — a  great  historical  movement,  told  in 
the  language  of  the  open  air :  national  deliverance, 
guidance  on  the  highways  of  the  world,  the  inspiration 
of  prophecy,  and  the  pure,  ascetic  life.  But  /,  1 
destroyed  the  Amorite  ^  before  you^  whose  height  was  as 
the  cedarSf  and  he  was  strong  as  oakSy  and  I  destroyed  his 
fruit  from  above  and  his  roots  from  below.  What  a 
contrast  to  the  previous  picture  of  the  temple  filled 
with  fumes  of  wine  and  hot  with  lust  I  We  are  out 
on  open  history ;  God's  gales  blow  and  the  forests 
crash  before  them.  And  I  brought  you  up  out  of 
the  land  of  Egypt^  and  led  you  through  the  wilderness 
forty  years y  to  inherit  the  land  of  the  Amorite,  Religion 
is  not  chambering  and  wantonness ;  it  is  not  selfish 

in  saying  that  the  IVlassoretic  text,  which  our  English  version  follows, 
gives  no  sense.  LXX,  reads,  also  without  much  sense  as  a  whole,  rd 
xarovwra  inl  rbv  x^Oj'  rrjs  7^s,  Koi  iKOpd{f\i^op  els  K€(pa\as  ittQx^^* 

*  So  rightly  the  LXX.  Or  the  definite  article  may  be  here  used  in 
conformity  with  the  common  Hebrew  way  of  employing  it  to  desig- 
nate, not  a  definite  individual,  but  a  member  of  a  definite,  well- 
tnown  genua 

*  On  the  use  of  Amorite  for  all  the  inhabitants  of  Canaan  set 
Driver's  Deui.,  pp.  1 1  t 


138 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


comfort  or  profiting  by  the  miseries  of  the  poor  and 
the  sins  of  the  fallen.  But  religion  is  history — the 
freedom  of  the  people  and  their  education,  the  winning 
of  the  land  and  the  defeat  of  the  heathen  foe;  and 
then,  when  the  land  is  firm  and  the  home  secure,  it 
is  the  raising,  upon  that  stage  and  shelter,  of  spiritual 
guides  and  examples.  And  I  raised  up  of  your  sons  to 
be  prophets  J  and  of  your  young  men  to  be  Nazirites — 
consecrated  and  ascetic  lives.  Is  it  not  so^  O  children 
of  Israel  ?  {oracle  of  Jehovah).  But  ye  made  the 
Nazirites  drink  wine,  and  the  prophets  ye  charged^  saying^ 
Prophesy  not  I 

Luxury,  then,  and  a  very  sensual  conception  of 
religion,  with  all  their  vicious  offspring  in  the  abuse 
of  justice,  the  oppression  of  the  poor,  the  corrupting 
of  the  innocent,  and  the  intolerance  of  spiritual  forces 
— these  are  the  sins  of  an  enlightened  and  civilised 
people,  which  Amos  describes  as  worse  than  all  the 
atrocities  of  barbarism,  and  as  certain  of  Divine 
vengeance.  How  far  beyond  his  own  day  are  his 
words  still  warm  I  Here  in  the  nineteenth  century 
is  Great  Britain,  destroyer  of  the  slave-traffic,  and 
champion  of  oppressed  nationalities — yet  this  great 
and  Christian  people,  at  the  very  time  they  are  abolish- 
ing slavery,  suffer  their  own  children  to  work  in 
factories  and  clay-pits  for  sixteen  hours  a  day,  and  in 
mines  set  women  to  a  labour  for  which  horses  are 
deemed  too  valuable.  Things  improve  after  1848,  but 
how  slowly  and  against  what  callousness  of  Christians 
Lord  Shaftesbury's  long  and  often  disappointed  labours 
painfully  testify.  Even  yet  our  religious  public,  that 
curses  the  Turk,  and  in  an  indignation,  which  can 
never  be  too  warm,  cries  out  against  the  Armenian 
atrocities,  is  callous,  nay,  by  the  avarice  of  3ome,  the 


Amosi.3-ii.]    ATROCITIES  AND  ATROCITIES 


139 


haste  and  passion  for  enjoyment  of  many  more,  and 
the  thoughtlessness  of  all,  itself  contributes,  to  con- 
ditions of  Hfe  and  fashions  of  society,  which  bear  with 
cruelty  upon  our  poor,  taint  our  literature,  needlessly 
increase  the  temptations  of  our  large  towns,  and  render 
pure  childlife  impossible  among  masses  of  our  popu- 
lation. Along  some  of  the  highways  of  our  Christian 
civilisation  we  are  just  as  cruel  and  just  as  lustful  as 
Kurd  or  Turk. 

Amos  closes  this  prophecy  with  a  vision  of  im- 
mediate judgment.  Behold^  I  am  about  to  crush  or 
squeeze  down  upon  you^  as  a  waggon  crushes  ^  that  is  full 

*  The  verb  p\V  of  the  Massoretic  text  is  not  found  elsewhere,  and 
whether  we  retain  it,  or  take  it  as  a  variant  of,  or  mistake  for,  p1^f,  or 
adopt  some  other  reading,  the  whole  phrase  is  more  or  less  uncertain, 
and  the  exact  shade  of  meaning  has  to  be  guessed,  though  the 
general  sense  remains  pretty  much  the  same.  The  following  is  a 
complete  note  on  the  subject,  with  reasons  for  adopting  the  above 
conclusion. 

(i)  LXX.  :  Behold^  I  roll  (kv\1(m>)  under  you  as  a  waggon  full  of 
straw  is  rolled.  A.V. :  /  am  pressed  under  you  as  a  cart  is  pressed, 
Pusey  :  /  straiten  myself  under  you,  etc.  These  versions  take  p-II?  in 
the  sense  of  p'lV,  to  press^  and  finn  in  its  usual  meaning  of  beneath ; 
and  the  result  is  conformable  to  the  well-known  figure  of  the  Old 
Testament  by  which  God  is  said  to  be  laden  and  weary  with  the 
transgressions  of  His  people.  But  this  does  not  mean  an  actual 
descent  of  judgment,  and  yet  vv.  14-16  imply  that  such  an  intima- 
tion has  been  made  in  ver.  13 ;  and  besides  pTD  and  p^l^H  are  both 
in  the  Hiphil,  the  active,  to  press,  or  causative,  make  to  press, 
(2)  Accordingly  some,  adopting  this  sense  of  the  verb,  take  Hnn  in 
an  unusual  sense  of  down  upon,  Ewald  :  /  press  down  upon  you 
as  a  cart  that  is  full  of  sheaves  presseth.  Guthe  (in  Kautzsch's  Bibel)  : 
Ich  will  euch  quetschen.  Rev.  Eng.  Ver.  :  /  will  press  you  in  your  place, 
— But  pir  has  been  taken  in  other  senses.  (3)  Hoffmann  (Z.A.T.W,^ 
III.  100)  renders  it  groan  in  conformity  with  Arab.'ik.  (4)  Wetzstein 
(ibid.,  278  ff.)  quotes  Arab.  *ak,  to  stop,  hinder,  and  suggests  /  will 
bring  to  a  stop.  (5)  Buhl  (12th  Ed.  of  Gesenius'  Handwort,  sub  p^V), 
in  view  of  possibility  of  rh^  being  threshing- roller,  recalU  Ar*b. 


140 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


of  sheaves}  An  alternative  reading  supplies  the  same 
general  impression  of  a  crushing  judgment :  /  will 
make  the  ground  quake  under  yoUj  as  a  waggon  makes 
it  quake^  or  as  a  waggon  itself  quakes  under  its  load  of 
sheaves.  This  shock  is  to  be  War.  Flight  shall  perish 
from  the  swiftj  and  the  strong  shall  not  prove  his  power^ 
nor  the  mighty  man  escape  with  his  life.  And  he  that 
graspeth  the  bow  shall  not  stands  nor  shall  the  swift  of 
foot  escape ^  nor  the  horseman  escape  with  his  life.  And 
he  that  thinketh  himself  strong  among  the  heroes  shall 
flee  away  naked  in  that  day — His  the  oracle  of  Jehovah, 


'akk,  to  cut  in  pieces.  (6)  Hitzig  (Exeg,  Handbuch)  proposed  to  read  p^2D 
and  p*'Qn  :  /  will  make  it  shake  under  you,  as  the  laden  waggon  shakes 
(the  ground).  So  rather  differently  Wellhausen  :  /  will  make  the 
ground  quake  under  you ^  as  a  waggon  quakes  under  its  load  of  sheaves, 
.  I  have  only  to  add  that,  in  the  Alex.  Cod.  of  LXX.,  which  reads 
<fwXi;(*>  for  KvXioj,  we  have  an  interesting  analogy  to  Wetzstein's 
proposal ;  and  that  in  support  of  the  rendering  of  Ewald,  and  its 
unusual  interpretation  of  DD^nPlfl  which  seems  to  me  on  the  whole 
the  most  probable,  we  may  compare  Job  xxxvi.  i 
This,  it  is  true,  suggests  rather  the  choking  of  a  passage  than  the 
crushing  of  the  ground  ;  but,  by  the  way,  that  sense  is  even  more 
applicable  to  a  harvest  waggon  laden  with  sheaves. 

^  Waggon  full  of  sheaves. — Wellhausen  goes  too  far  when  he 
suggests  that  Amos  would  have  to  go  outside  Palestine  to  see  such  a 
waggon.  That  a  people  who  already  knew  the  use  of  chariots  for 
travelling  (cf.  Gen.  xlvi.  5,  JE)  and  waggons  for  agricultural  pur- 
poses (l  Sam.  vi.  7  ff.)  did  not  use  them  at  least  in  the  lowlands  of 
their  country  is  extremely  improbable.  Cf.  Hist,  Geog.^  Appendix  on 
Roads  and  Wheeled  Vehicles  in  Syria, 


CHAPTER  VIII 


CIVILISATION  AND  JUDGMENT 


Amos  iii. — iv.  3. 


E  now  enter  the  Second  Section  of  the  Book 


various  oracles  of  denunciation,  grouped  partly  by 
the  recurrence  of  the  formula  Hear  this  wordy  which 
stands  at  the  head  of  our  present  chapters  iii.,  iv.  and 
v.,  which  are  therefore  probably  due  to  it;  partly  by 
two  cries  of  Woe  at  v.  18  and  vi.  i  ;  and  also  by  the 
fact  that  each  of  the  groups  thus  started  leads  up  to 
an  emphatic,  though  not  at  first  detailed,  prediction  of 
the  nation's  doom  (iii.  13-15;  iv.  3;  iv.  12;  v.  16, 
17  ;  v.  26,  27  ;  vi.  14).  Within  these  divisions  lie  a 
number  of  short  indictments,  sentences  of  judgment 
and  the  like,  which  have  no  further  logical  connection 
than  is  supplied  by  their  general  sameness  of  subject, 
and  a  perceptible  increase  of  articulateness  from  be- 
ginning to  end  of  the  Section.  The  sins  of  Israel  are 
more  detailed,  and  the  judgment  of  war,  coming  from 
the  North,  advances  gradually  till  we  discern  the 
unmistakable  ranks  of  Assyria.  But  there  are  various 
parentheses  and  interruptions,  which  cause  the  student 
of  the  text  no  little  difficulty.  Some  of  these,  however, 
may  be  only  apparent :  it  will  always  be  a  question 
whether  their  want  of  immediate  connection  with  what 


It  is  a  collection  of 


142 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


precedes  them  is  not  due  to  the  loss  of  several  words 
from  the  text  rather  than  to  their  own  intrusion  into  it. 
Of  others  it  is  true  that  they  are  obviously  out  of  place 
as  they  lie ;  their  removal  brings  together  verses  which 
evidently  belong  to  each  other.  Even  such  parentheses, 
however,  may  be  from  Amos  himself.  It  is  only  where 
a  verse,  besides  interrupting  the  argument,  seems  to 
reflect  a  historical  situation  later  than  the  prophet's 
day,  that  we  can  be  sure  it  is  not  his  own.  And  in 
all  this  textual  criticism  we  must  keep  in  mind,  that 
the  obscurity  of  the  present  text  of  a  verse,  so  far 
from  being  an  adequate  proof  of  its  subsequent  inser- 
tion, may  be  the  very  token  of  its  antiquity,  scribes 
or  translators  of  later  date  having  been  unable  to 
understand  it.  To  reject  a  verse,  only  because  we  do 
not  see  the  connection,  would  surely  be  as  arbitrary,  as 
the  opposite  habit  of  those  who,  missing  a  connection, 
invent  one,  and  then  exhibit  their  artificial  joint  as 
evidence  of  the  integrity  of  the  whole  passage.  In 
fact  we  must  avoid  all  headstrong  surgery,  for  to  a 
great  extent  we  work  in  the  dark. 

The  general  subject  of  the  Section  may  be  indi- 
cated by  the  title  :  Religion  and  Civilisation.  A 
vigorous  community,  wealthy,  cultured  and  honestly 
religious,  are,  at  a  time  of  settled  peace  and  growing 
power,  threatened,  in  the  name  of  the  God  of  justice, 
with  their  complete  political  overthrow.  Their  civilisa- 
tion is  counted  for  nothing;  their  religion,  on  which 
they  base  their  confidence,  is  denounced  as  taise  and 
unavailing.  These  two  subjects  are  not,  and  could  not 
have  been,  separated  by  the  prophet  in  any  one  of  his 
oracles.  But  in  the  first,  the  briefest  and  most 
summary  of  these,  chaps,  iii. — iv.  3,  it  is  mainly  with 
(he  doom  of  the  civil  structure  of  IsraeFs  life  that 


AmosiH.-iv.3.]    CIVILISATION  AND  JUDGMENT 


143 


Amos  deals ;  and  it  will  be  more  convenient  for  us  to 
take  them  first,  with  all  due  reference  to  the  echoes  of 
wliem  in  later  parts  of  the  Section.  From  iv.  4 — vi.  it 
is  the  Religion  and  its  false  peace  which  he  assaults ; 
and  we  shall  take  that  in  the  next  chapter.  Firsty 
then,  Civilisation  and  Judgment  (iii. — iv.  3) ;  Second^ 
The  False  Peace  of  Ritual  (iv.  4 — vi.). 

These  few  brief  oracles  open  upon  the  same  note  as 
that  in  which  the  previous  Section  closed — that  the 
crimes  of  Israel  are  greater  than  those  of  the  heathen ; 
and  that  the  people's  peculiar  relation  to  God  means,  not 
their  security,  but  their  greater  judgment.  It  is  then 
affirmed  that  Israel's  wealth  and  social  life  are  so 
sapped  by  luxury  and  injustice  that  the  nation  must 
perish.  And,  as  in  every  luxurious  community  the 
women  deserve  especial  blame,  the  last  of  the  group 
of  oracles  is  reserved  for  them  (iv.  1-3). 

Hear  this  wordy  which  Jehovah  hath  spoken  against 
yoUf  O  children  of  Israel^  against  the  whole  family 
which  I  brought  up  from  the  land  of  Egypt — ^Judah  as 
well  as  North  Israel,  so  that  we  see  the  vanity  of  a 
criticism  which  would  cast  out  of  the  Book  of  Amos 
as  unauthentic  every  reference  to  Judah.  Only  you 
have  I  known  of  all  the  families  of  the  ground — not  world, 
but  ground^  purposely  chosen  to  stamp  the  meanness 
and  mortality  of  them  all — therefore  will  I  visit  upon 
you  all  your  iniquities. 

This  famous  text  has  been  called  by  various  writers 
"the  keynote,"  ''the  licence"  and  the  charter''  ol 
prophecy.  But  the  names  are  too  petty  for  what  is 
not  less  than  the  fulmination  of  an  element.  It  is  a 
peal  of  thunder  we  hear.    It  is,  in  a  moment,  the 


«44 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


explosion  and  discharge  of  the  full  storm  of  prophecy. 
As  when  from  a  burst  cloud  the  streams  immediately 
below  rise  suddenly  and  all  their  banks  are  overflowed, 
so  the  prophecies  that  ^llow  surge  and  rise  clear  of 
the  old  limits  of  Israel's  faith  by  the  unconfined, 
unmeasured  flood  of  heaven's  justice  that  breaks  forth 
by  this  single  verse.  Now,  once  for  all,  are  submerged 
the  lines  of  custom  and  tradition  within  which  the  course 
of  religion  has  hitherto  flowed ;  and,  as  it  were,  the 
surface  of  the  world  is  altered.  It  is  a  crisis  which  has 
happened  more  than  once  again  in  history:  when 
helpless  man  has  felt  the  absolute  relentlessness  of 
the  moral  issues  of  life  ;  their  renunciation  of  the  past, 
however  much  th,ey  have  helped  to  form  it ;  their 
sacrifice  of  every  development  however  costly,  and 
of  every  hope  however  pure  ;  their  deafness  to  prayer, 
their  indifference  to  penitence ;  when  no  faith  saves 
a  Church,  no  courage  a  people,  no  culture  or  prestige 
even  the  most  exalted  order  of  men  ;  but  at  the  bare 
hands  of  a  judgment,  uncouth  of  voice  and  often 
unconscious  of  a  Divine  mission,  the  results  of  a 
great  civilisation  are  for  its  sins  swept  remorselessly 
away. 

Before  the  storm  bursts,  we  learn  by  its  lightnings 
some  truths  from  the  old  life  that  is  to  be  destroyed. 
You  only  have  I  known  of  all  the  families  of  the  ground : 
therefore  will  I  visit  your  iniquities  upon  you.  Religion 
is  no  insurance  against  judgment,  no  mere  atonement 
and  escape  from  consequences.  Escape !  Religion  is 
only  opportunity — the  greatest  moral  opportunity  which 
men  have,  and  which  if  they  violate  nothing  remains 
for  them  but  a  certain  fearful  looking  forward  unto 
judgment.  You  only  have  I  known ;  and  because  you 
did  not  take  the  moral  advantage  of  My  intercourse, 


Amosiii.-iv.3.]  CIVILISATION  AND  JUDGMENT  145 

because  you  felt  it  only  as  privilege  and  pride,  pardon 
for  the  past  and  security  for  the  future,  therefore  doom 
the  more  inexorable  awaits  you. 

-  Then  as  if  the  people  had  interrupted  him  with  the 
question,  What  sign  do  you  give  us  that  this  judgment 
is  near? — Amos  goes  aside  into  that  noble  digression 
(vv.  3-8)  on  the  harmony  between  the  prophet's  word 
and  the  imminent  events  of  the  time,  which  we  have 
already  studied.^  From  this  apologia,  verse  9  returns 
to  the  note  of  verses  I  and  2  and  develops  it.  Not 
only  is  Israel's  responsibility  greater  than  that  of  other 
people's.  Her  crimes  themselves  are  more  heinous. 
Make  proclamation  over  the  palaces  in  Ashdod — if  we  are 
not  to  read  Assyria  here,^  then  the  name  of  Ashdod 
has  perhaps  been  selected  from  all  other  heathen 
names  because  of  its  similarity  to  the  Hebrew  word 
for  that  violence^  with  which  Amos  is  charging  the 
people — and  over  the  palaces  of  the  land  of  Egypt^  and 
sayy  Gather  upon  the  Mount of  Samaria  and  see  !  Con- 
fusions manifold  in  the  midst  of  her  ;  violence  to  her  very 
core !  Yea^  they  know  not  how  to  do  uprightness^  saith 
Jehovah^  who  store  up  wrong  and  violence  in  their  palaces. 
"  To  their  crimes,"  said  the  satirist  of  the  Romans 
they  owe  their  gardens,  palaces,  stables  and  fine  old 
plate."  ^  And  William  Langland  declared  of  the  rich 
English  of  his  day  : — 

"For  toke  thei  on  trewly  *  they  tymbred  not  so  heigh, 
Ne  boughte  non  burgages  •  be  ye  full  certayne."* 

'  See  above,  pp.  82  fif.  and  pp.  89  ff. 

•  With  the  LXX.  lltJ^Nl  for  ntTNl. 

•  (ver.  10). 

•  Singular  as  in  LXX.,  and  not  plural  as  in  the  M.T.  and  English 
versions. 

•  Juvenal,  Satires^  I. 

•  Vision  0/ Piers  Plowman.    Burgages  — tenements. 
VOL.  L  lO 


146 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah:  Siege  and 
Blockade  of  the  Land  /  ^  And  they  shall  bring  down  from 
off  thee  thy  fortresses^  and  plundered  shall  be  thy  palaces. 
Yet  this  shall  be  no  ordinary  tide  of  Eastern  war,  to 
ebb  like  the  Syrian  as  it  flowed,  and  leave  the  nation 
to  rally  on  their  land  again.  For  Assyria  devours  the 
peoples.  Thus  saith  Jehovah :  As  the  shepherd  saveth 
from  the  mouth  of  the  lion  a  pair  of  shin-bones  or  a  bit 
of  an  ear^  so  shall  the  children  of  Israel  be  saved — they 
who  sit  in  Samaria  in  the  corner  of  the  diwan  and  .  .  . 
on  a  couch?  The  description,  as  will  be  seen  from  the 
note  below,  is  obscure.  Some  think  it  is  intended  to 
satirise  a  novel  and  affected  fashion  of  sitting  adopted 
by  the  rich.  Much  more  probably  it  means  that 
carnal  security  in  the  luxuries  of  civilisation  which 

'  Or  The  Enemy ^  and  that  right  round  the  Land  I 

'  In  Damascus  on  a  couch  :  on  a  Damascus  couch  :  on  a  Damascus* 
cloth  couch  :  or  Damascus-fashion  on  a  couch — alternatives  all  equally 
probable  and  equally  beyond  proof.  The  text  is  very  difficult,  nor  do 
the  versions  give  help,  (i)  The  consonants  of  the  word  before  a  couch 
spell  in  Damascus,  and  so  the  LXX.  take  it.  This  would  be  in  exact 
parallel  to  the  in  Samaria  of  the  previous  half  of  the  clause.  But 
although  Jeroboam  II.  is  said  to  have  recovered  Damascus 
(2  Kings  xiv.  28),  this  is  not  necessarily  the  town  itself,  of  whose 
occupation  by  Israel  we  have  no  evidence,  while  Amos  always 
assumes  it  to  be  Aramean,  and  here  he  is  addressing  Israelites.  Still 
retaining  the  name  of  the  city,  we  can  take  it  with  couch  as  parallel, 
not  to  in  Samaria,  but  to  on  the  side  of  a  diwan ;  in  that  case  the 
meaning  may  have  been  a  Damascus  couch  (though  as  the  two  words 
stand  it  is  impossible  to  parse  them,  and  Gen.  xv.  2  cannot  be  quoted  in 
support  of  this,  for  it  is  too  uncertain  itself,  being  possibly  a  gloss, 
though  it  is  curious  that  as  the  two  passages  run  the  name  Damascus 
should  be  in  the  same  strange  grammatical  conjunction  in  each),  or 
possioly  Damascus-fashion  on  a  couch,  which  (if  the  first  half  of  the 
clause,  as  some  maintain,  refers  to  some  delicate  or  affected  posture  then 
come  into  fashion)  is  the  most  probable  rendering.  (2)  The  Massoretes 
have  pointed,  sot  bedammeseq  =  in  Damascus^  but  bedemesheq^  a 
form  not  found  elsewhere,  which  some  (Ges.,  Hitz.,  Ew.,  Rev.  Eng. 


Amosiii.-iv.3.]    CIVILISATION  AND  JUDGMENT  147 


Amos  threatens  more  than  once  in  similar  phrases.* 
The  corner  of  the  diwan  is  in  Eastern  houses  the  seat 
of  honour.*  To  this  desert  shepherd,  with  only  the 
hard  ground  to  rest  on,  the  couches  and  ivory- 
mounted  diwans  of  the  rich  must  have  seemed  the  very 
symbols  of  extravagance.  But  the  pampered  bodies  that 
loll  their  lazy  lengths  upon  them  shall  be  left  like  the 
crumbs  of  a  lion^s  meal — two  shin-bones  and  the  bit  of  an 
ear!  Their  whole  civilisation  shall  perish  with  them. 
Hearken  and  testify  against  the  house  of  Israel — oracle 
of  the  Lord  Jehovah^  God  of  Hosts  ^ — those  addressed 
are  still  the  heathen  summoned  in  ver.  9.  For  on  the 
day  when  I  visit  the  crimes  of  Israel  upon  hinty  I  shall 
then  make  visitation  upon  the  altars  of  Bethel^  and  the 
horns  of  the  altar y  which  men  grasp  in  their  last  despair, 
shall  be  smitten  and  fall  to  the  earth.  And  I  will  strike 
the  winter-house  upon  the  summer-house^  and  the  ivory 
houses  shall  perish^  yea^  swept  away  shall  be  houses  many 
—  oracle  of  Jehovah, 

But  the  luxury  oi  no  civilisation  can  be  measured 


Ver.,  etc.)  take  to  mean  some  Damascene  stuflf  (as  perhaps  our 
Damask  and  the  Arabic  dimshaq  originally  meant,  though  this  is  not 
certain),  e.g.  silk  or  velvet  or  cushions.  (3)  Others  rearrange  the  text. 
E.g.  Hoffmann  {Z.A.T.W.^  III.  102)  takes  the  whole  clause  away  from 
ver.  12  and  attaches  it  to  ver.  13,  reading  O  those  who  sit  in  Samaria 
on  the  edge  of  the  diwan,  and  in  Damascus  on  a  couch,  hearken  and 
testify  against  the  house  of  Jacob.  But,  as  Wellhausen  points  out,  those 
addressed  in  ver.  13  are  the  same  as  those  addressed  in  ver.  9. 
Wellhausen  prefers  to  believe  that  after  the  words  children  of  Israel, 
which  end  a  sentence,  something  has  fallen  out.  The  LXX.  trans- 
lator, who  makes  several  blunders  in  the  course  of  this  chapter,  in- 
stead of  translating  b^"li;  couch,  the  last  word  of  the  verse,  merely 
transliterates  it  into  tepets  !  1 

'  Cf.  vi.  4  :  that  lie  on  ivory  diwans  and  sprawl  on  their  couchst^ 

•  Van  Lennep,  Bible  Lands  and  Customs,  p.  460. 

'  See  p.  205,  H,  4. 


148 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


without  its  women,  and  to  the  women  of  Samaria  Amos 
now  turns  with  the  most  scornful  of  all  his  words. 
Hear  this  word — this  for  you — kine  of  Bashan  that 
are  in  the  mount  of  Samaria^  that  oppress  the  poor^  that 
crush  the  needy ^  that  say  to  their  lords^  Brings  and  let  us 
drink.  Sworn  hath  the  Lord  Jehovah  by  His  holiness^ 
loj  days  are  coming  when  there  shall  be  a  taking  away  of 
you  with  hookSy  and  of  the  last  of  you  with  fish-hooks. 
They  put  hooks  ^  in  the  nostrils  of  unruly  cattle, 
and  the  figure  is  often  applied  to  human  captives  ;  * 
but  so  many  should  these  cattle  of  Samaria  be  that 
for  the  last  of  them  fish-hooks  must  be  used.  Yea^  by 
the  breaches  in  the  wall  of  the  stormed  city  shall  ye 
go  outf  every  one  headlong^  and  ye  shall  be  cast  .  .  • 
oracle  of  Jehovah,  It  is  a  cowherd^s  rough  picture  of 
women  :  a  troop  of  kine — heavy,  heedless  animals, 
trampling  in  their  anxiety  for  food  upon  every  frail 
and  lowly  object  in  the  way.  But  there  is  a  prophet's 
insight  into  character.  Not  of  Jezebels,  or  Messalinas, 
or  Lady-Mac beths  is  it  spoken,  but  of  the  ordinary 


^  The  words  for  hook  in  Hebrew — the  two  used  above,  HIDV  and 
m^l'^pj  and  a  third,  Plin — all  mean  originally  thornSy  doubtless  the 
first  hooks  of  primitive  man;  but  by  this  time  they  would  signify 
m.etal  hooks — a  change  analogous  to  the  English  word  pen. 

Cf.  Isa.  xxxvii.  29 ;  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  11.  On  the  use  of  fish-hooks, 
Job  xl.  26  (Heb.),  xli.  2  (Eng.) ;  Ezek.  xxix.  4. 

*  The  verb,  which  in  the  text  is  active,  must  be  taken  in  the 
passive.  The  word  not  translated  above  is  njlOl.nnj  unto  the 
HarmoHf  which  name  does  not  occur  elsewhere.  LXX.  read  eis  t6 
6pos  t6  'Vofifidv,  which  Ewald  renders  ye  shall  cast  the  Rimmon  to  the 
mountain  (cf.  Isa,  ii.  20),  and  he  takes  Rimmon  to  be  the  Syrian 
goddess  of  love.  Steiner  (quoted  by  Wellhausen)  renders shall  be 
cast  out  to  Hadad Rimmon^  that  is,  violated  as  HTl^np.  Hitzig  separates 
■)nn  from  riDID,  which  he  takes  as  contracted  from  HJl/D,  and  renders 
ye  shall  fling  yourselves  out  on  the  mountains  as  a  refuge.  But  none 
of  these  is  satisfactory. 


Amosiii.-iv.3.]   CIVILISATION  AND  JUDGMENT  149 


matrons  of  Samaria.  Thoughtlessness  and  luxury  are 
able  to  make  brutes  out  of  women  of  gentle  nurture, 
with  homes  and  a  religion.* 

Such  are  these  three  or  four  short  oracles  of  Amos. 
They  are  probably  among  his  earliest — the  first  per- 
emptory challenges  of  prophecy  to  that  great  strong- 
hold which  before  forty  years  she  is  to  see  thrown  down 
in  obedience  to  her  word.  As  yet,  however,  there 
seems  to  be  nothing  to  justify  the  menaces  of  Amos. 
Fair  and  stable  rises  the  structure  of  IsraeFs  life.  A 
nation,  who  know  themselves  elect,  who  in  politics  are 
prosperous  and  in  religion  proof  to  every  doubt,  build 
high  their  palaces,  see  the  skies  above  them  unclouded, 
and  bask  in  their  pride,  heaven's  favourites  without  a 
fear.  This  man,  solitary  and  sudden  from  his  desert, 
springs  upon  them  in  the  name  of  God  and  their 
poor.  Straighter  word  never  came  from  Deity  :  Jehovah 
hath  spoken^  who  can  but  prophesy?  The  insight  of 
it,  the  justice  of  it,  are  alike  convincing.  Yet  at  first 
it  appears  as  if  it  were  sped  on  the  personal  and  very 
human  passion  of  its  herald.  For  Amos  not  only 
uses  the  desert's  cruelties — the  lion's  to  the  sheep — 
to  figure  God's  impending  judgment  upon  His  people, 
but  he  enforces  the  latter  with  all  a  desert-bred  man's 
horror  of  cities  and  civilisation.  It  is  their  costly 
furniture,  their  lavish  and  complex  building,  on  which 
he  sees  the  storm  break.  We  seem  to  hear  again  that 
frequent  phrase  of  the  previous  section  :  the  fire  shall 
devour  the  palaces  thereof.    The  palaces,  he  says,  are 

'  I  have  already  treated  this  passa^^e  in  connection  with  Isaiah's 
prophecies  on  women  in  the  volume  on  Isaiah  i. — xxxix.  (Expositors 
Bible),  Chap.  XVL 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


simply  storehouses  of  oppression  ;  the  palaces  will  be 
plundered.  Here,  as  throughout  his  book/  couches  and 
diwans  draw  forth  the  scorn  of  a  man  accustomed  to 
the  simple  furniture  of  the  tent.  But  observe  his 
especial  hatred  of  houses.  Four  times  in  one  verse 
he  smites  them  :  winter-house  on  summer-house  and  the 
ivory  houses  shall  perish — yea^  houses  manifold^  saith  the 
Lord,  So  in  another  oracle  of  the  same  section  :  Houses 
of  ashlar  ye  have  built^  and  ye  shall  not  inhabit  them; 
vineyards  of  delight  have  ye  planted^  and  ye  shall  not  drink 
of  their  wine}  And  in  another:  /  loathe  the  pride  oj 
Jacob f  and  his  palaces  I  hate;  and  I  will  give  up  a  city 
and  all  that  is  in  it.  .  .  .  For^  lo^  the  Lord  is  about  to 
command^  and  He  will  smite  the  great  house  into  ruins 
and  the  small  house  into  splinters}  No  wonder  that  such 
a  prophet  found  war  with  its  breached  walls  insufficient, 
and  welcomed,  as  the  full  ally  of  his  word,  the  earth- 
quake itself.* 

Yet  all  this  is  no  mere  desert  "  razzia  "  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord,  a  nomad*s  hatred  of  cities  and  the  culture 
of  settled  men.  It  is  not  a  temper;  it  is  a  vision  of 
history.  In  the  only  argument  which  these  early 
oracles  contain,  Amos  claims  to  have  events  on  the 
side  of  his  word.  Shall  the  lion  roar  and  not  be  catching 
something?  Neither  does  the  prophet  speak  till  he 
knows  that  God  is  ready  to  act.  History  accepted  this 
claim.  Amos  spoke  about  755.  In  734  Tiglath-Pileser 
swept  Gilead  and  Galilee ;  in  724  Shalmaneser  overran 
the  rest  of  Northern  Israel  :  siege  and  blockade  of  the 
whole  land  /  For  three  years  the  Mount  of  Samaria 
was  invested,  and  then  taken  ;  the  houses  overthrown, 
the  rich  and  the  delicate  led  away  captive.    It  happened 

*  Cf.  chap.  vi.  4.       '  vi.  8,  II. 

•  V.  II.  *  Cf.  what  was  said  on  building  above,  p.  33, 


Amosiii..iv.3.]    CIVILISATION  AND  JUDGMENT  151 


as  Amos  foretold ;  for  it  was  not  the  shepherd's  rage 
within  him  that  spoke.  He  had  seen  the  Lord  standings 
and  He  said.  Smite, 

But  this  assault  of  a  desert  nomad  upon  the  structure 
of  a  nation's  life  raises  many  echoes  in  history  and 
some  questions  in  our  own  minds  to-day.  Again  and 
again  have  civilisations  far  more  powerful  than  Israel's 
been  threatened  by  the  desert  in  the  name  of  God,  and 
in  good  faith  it  has  been  proclaimed  by  the  prophets 
of  Christianity  and  other  religions  that  God's  kingdom 
cannot  come  on  earth  till  the  wealth,  the  culture,  the 
civil  order,  which  men  have  taken  centuries  to  build, 
have  been  swept  away  by  some  great  political  con- 
vulsion. To-day  Christianity  herself  suffers  the  same 
assaults,  and  is  told  by  many,  the  high  life  and  honest 
intention  of  whom  cannot  be  doubted,  that  till  the 
civiHsation  which  she  has  so  much  helped  to  create 
is  destroyed,  there  is  no  hope  for  the  purity  or  the 
progress  of  the  race.  And  Christianity,  too,  has  doubts 
within  herself.  What  is  the  world  which  our  Master 
refused  in  the  Mount  of  Temptation,  and  so  often  and 
so  sternly  told  us  that  it  must  perish  ? — how  much 
of  our  wealth,  of  our  culture,  of  our  politics,  of 
the  whole  fabric  of  our  society?  No  thoughtful  and 
religious  man,  when  confronted  with  civilisation,  not 
in  its  ideal,  but  in  one  of  those  forms  which  give  it 
its  very  name,  the  life  of  a  large  city,  can  fail  to  ask, 
How  much  of  this  deserves  the  judgment  of  God  ? 
How  much  must  be  overthrown,  before  His  will  is  done 
on  earth  ?  All  these  questions  rise  in  the  ears  and 
the  heart  of  a  generation,  which  more  than  any  other 
has  been  brought  face  to  face  with  the  ruins  of  empires 
and  civilisations,  which  have  endured  longer,  and  in 
their  day  seemed  more  stable,  than  her  own. 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


In  face  of  the  confused  thinking  and  fanatic  speech 
which  have  risen  on  all  such  topics,  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  Hebrew  prophets  supply  us  with  four  cardinal 
rules. 

First,  of  course,  they  insist  that  it  is  the  moral 

question  upon  which  the  fate  of  a  civilisation  is  decided. 
By  what  means  has  this  system  grown  ?  Is  justice 
observed  in  essence  as  well  as  form  ?  Is  there  freedom, 
or  is  the  prophet  silenced  ?  Does  luxury  or  self-denial 
prevail?  Do  the  rich  make  life  hard  for  the  poor? 
Is  childhood  sheltered  and  is  innocence  respected? 
By  these,  claim  the  prophets,  a  nation  stands  or  falls ; 
and  history  has  proved  the  claim  on  wider  worlds  than 
they  dreamt  of. 

But  by  themselves  moral  reasons  are  never  enough 
to  justify  a  prediction  of  speedy  doom  upon  any 
system  or  society.  None  of  the  prophets  began  to 
foretell  the  fall  of  Israel  till  they  read,  with  keener  eyes 
than  their  contemporaries,  the  signs  of  it  in  current 
history.  And  this,  I  take  it,  was  the  point  which  made 
a  notable  difference  between  them,  and  one  who  hke 
them  scourged  the  social  wrongs  of  his  civilisation,  yet 
never  spoke  a  word  of  its  fall.  Juvenal  nowhere  calls 
down  judgments,  except  upon  individuals.  In  his  time 
there  were  no  signs  of  the  decline  of  the  empire,  even 
though,  as  he  marks,  there  was  a  flight  from  the  capital 
of  the  virtue  which  was  to  keep  the  empire  alive.  But 
the  prophets  had  political  proof  of  the  nearness  of  God's 
judgment,  and  they  spoke  in  the  power  of  its  coin- 
cidence with  the  moral  corruption  of  their  people. 

Again,  if  conscience  and  history  (both  of  them,  to 
the  prophets,  being  witnesses  of  God)  thus  combine  to 
announce  the  early  doom  of  a  civilisation,  n  either  the 
religion  that  may  have  helped  to  build  it,  nor  any 


Amosiii.-iv.3.]    CIVILISATION  AND  JUDGMENT 


153 


remanent  virtue^  in  it,  nor  its  ancient  value  to  God,  can 
avail  to  save.  We  are  tempted  to  judge  that  the  long 
and  costly  development  of  ages  is  cruelly  thrown  away 
by  the  convulsion  and  collapse  of  an  empire ;  it  feels 
impious  to  think  that  the  patience,  the  providence,  the 
millennial  discipline  of  the  Almighty  are  to  be  in  a 
moment  abandoned  to  some  rude  and  savage  force. 
But  we  are  wrong.  You  only  have  I  known  of  all  the 
families  of  the  ground^  yet  I  must  visit  upon  you  your 
iniquities.  Nothing  is  too  costly  for  justice.  And  God 
finds  some  other  way  of  conserving  the  real  results  of 
the  past. 

Again,  it  is  a  corollary  of  all  this,  that  the  sentence 
upon  civilisation  must  often  seem  to  come  by  voices 
that  are  insane,  and  its  execution  by  means  that  are 
criminal.  Of  course,  when  civilisation  is  arraigned  as 
a  whole,  and  its  overthrow  demanded,  there  may  be 
nothing  behind  the  attack  but  jealousy  or  greed,  the 
fanaticism  of  ignorant  men  or  the  madness  of  dis- 
ordered lives.  But  this  is  not  necessarily  the  case.  For 
God  has  often  in  history  chosen  the  outsider  as  the 
herald  of  doom,  and  sent  the  barbarian  as  its  instru- 
ment. By  the  statesmen  and  patriots  of  Israel,  Amos 
must  have  been  regarded  as  a  mere  savage,  with  a 
savage's  hate  of  civilisation.  But  we  know  what  he 
answered  when  Amaziah  called  him  rebel.  And 
it  was  not  only  for  its  suddenness  that  the  apostles 
said  the  day  of  the  Lord  should  come  as  a  thief  but  also 
because  of  its  methods.  For  over  and  over  again  has 
doom  been  pronounced,  and  pronounced  truly,  by  men 
who  in  the  eyes  of  civilisation  were  criminals  and 
monsters. 

Now  apply  these  four  principles  to  the  question  of 
ourselves.    It  will  scarcely  be  denied  that  our  civilisa- 


154 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


tion  tolerates,  and  in  part  lives  by,  the  existence 
of  vices  which,  as  we  all  admit,  ruined  the  ancient 
empires.  Are  the  political  possibilities  of  overthrow  also 
present?  That  there  exist  among  us  means  of  new 
historic  convulsions  is  a  thing  hard  for  us  to  admit. 
But  the  signs  cannot  be  hid.  When  we  see  the 
jealousies  of  the  Christian  peoples,  and  their  enormous 
preparations  for  battle ;  the  arsenals  of  Europe  which  a 
few  sparks  may  blow  up ;  the  millions  of  soldiers  one 
man's  word  may  mobilise ;  when  we  imagine  the  oppor- 
tunities which  a  general  war  would  furnish  to  the 
discontented  masses  of  the  European  proletariat, — we 
must  surely  acknowledge  the  existence  of  forces  capable 
of  inflicting  calamities,  so  severe  as  to  affect  not  merely 
this  nationality  or  that  type  of  culture,  but  the  very 
vigour  and  progress  of  civilisation  herself ;  and  all  this 
without  our  looking  beyond  Christendom,  or  taking 
into  account  the  rise  of  the  yellow  races  to  a  conscious- 
ness of  their  approach  to  equality  with  ourselves.  If, 
then,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Divine  justice  Christendom 
merits  judgment, — if  life  continue  to  be  left  so  hard  to 
the  poor ;  if  innocence  be  still  an  impossibility  for  so 
much  of  the  childhood  of  the  Christian  nations ;  if  with 
so  many  of  the  leaders  of  civilisation  prurience  be 
lifted  to  the  level  of  an  art,  and  licentiousness  followed 
as  a  cult ;  if  we  continue  to  pour  the  evils  of  our  civili- 
sation upon  the  barbarian,  and  the  vices  of  our 
young  nobles,"  to  paraphrase  Juvenal,  are  aped  in  " 
Hindustan, — then  let  us  know  that  the  means  of  a 
judgment  more  awful  than  any  which  has  yet  scourged 
a  delinquent  civilisation  are  extant  and  actual  among 
us.  And  if  one  should  reply,  that  our  Christianity 
makes  all  the  difference,  that  God  cannot  undo  the 
development  of  nineteen  centuries,  or  cannot  over- 


Amos  iii.-iv.  3.]    CIVILISA  TION  AND  JUDGMENT  155 


throw  the  peoples  of  His  Son, — let  us  remember  that 
God  does  justice  at  whatever  cost ;  that  as  He  did  not 
spare  Israel  at  the  hands  of  Assyria,  so  He  did  not 
spare  Christianity  in  the  East  when  the  barbarians  of 
the  desert  found  her  careless  and  corrupt.  You  only 
have  I  known  of  all  the  families  of  the  ground^  therefore 
will  I  visit  upon  you  all  your  iniquities. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  FALSE  PEACE  OF  RITUAL 
Amos  iv.  4 — vi. 

'T'^^HE  next  four  groups  of  oracles* — iv.  4-13,  v. 

JL  1-17,  V,  18-27  and  vi. — treat  of  many  different 
details,  and  each  of  them  has  its  own  emphasis;  but 
all  are  alike  in  this,  that  they  vehemently  attack  the 
.national  worship  and  the  sense  of  political  security 
which  it  has  engendered.  Let  us  at  once  make  clear 
that  this  worship  is  the  worship  of  Jehovah.  It  is  true 
that  it  is  mixed  with  idolatry,  but,  except  possibly  in 
one  obscure  verse,^  Amos  does  not  concern  himself  with 
the  idols.  What  he  strikes  at,  what  he  would  sweep 
away,  is  his  people's  form  of  devotion  to  their  own 
God.  The  cult  of  the  national  God,  at  the  national 
sanctuaries,  in  the  national  interest  and  by  the  whole 
body  of  the  people,  who  practise  it  with  a  zeal  un- 
paralleled by  their  forefathers — this  is  what  Amos 
condemns.  And  he  does  so  absolutely.  He  has 
thing  but  scorn  for  the  temples  and  the  feasts.  The 
assiduity  of  attendance,  the  liberality  of  gifts,  the 
employment  of  wealth  and  art  and  patriotism  in  worship 
— he  tells  his  generation  that  God  loathes  it  all.  Like 
Jeremiah,  he  even  seems  to  imply  that  God  never 


*  See  p.  141.  •  V.  26. 

156 


Amosiv.4-vi.]  THE  FALSE  PEACE  OF  RITUAL 


157 


instituted  in  Israel  any  sacrifice  or  offering.*  It  is  all 
this  which  gives  these  oracles  their  interest  for  us ;  and 
that  interest  is  not  merely  historical. 

It  is  indeed  historical  to  begin  with.  When  we  find, 
not  idolatry,  but  all  religious  ceremonial — temples, 
public  worship,  tithes,  sacrifice,  the  praise  of  God  by 
music,  in  fact  every  material  form  in  which  man  has 
ever  been  wont  to  express  his  devotion  to  God — scorned 
and  condemned  with  the  same  uncompromising  passion 
as  idolatry  itself,  we  receive  a  needed  lesson  in  the 
history  of  religion.  For  when  one  is  asked,  What  is 
the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  heathenism  ?  one  is 
always  ready  to  say.  Idolatry,  which  is  not  true.  The 
distinguishing  characteristic  of  heathenism  is  the  stress 
which  it  lays  upon  ceremonial.  To  the  pagan  religions, 
both  of  the  ancient  and  of  the  modern  world,  rites  were 
the  indispensable  element  in  religion.  The  gifts  of  the 
gods,  the  abundance  of  fruits,  the  security  of  the  state, 
depended  upon  the  full  and  accurate  performance  of 
ritual.  In  Greek  literature  we  have  innumerable  illus- 
trations of  this  :  the  Iliad  itself  starts  from  a  god*s  anger, 
roused  by  an  insult  to  his  priest,  whose  prayers  for 
vengeance  he  hears  because  sacrifices  have  been 
assiduously  offered  to  him.  And  so  too  with  the  systems 
of  paganism  from  which  the  faith  of  Israel,  though 
at  first  it  had  so  much  in  common  with  them,  broke 
away  to  its  supreme  religious  distinction.  The  Semites 
laid  the  stress  of  their  obedience  to  the  gods  upon 
traditional  ceremonies  ;  and  no  sin  was  held  so  heinous 
by  them  as  the  neglect  or  infringement  of  a  religious 
rite.  By  the  side  of  it  offences  against  one's  fellow- 
men  or  one's  own  character  were  deemed  mere  mis- 


»  V.  25. 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


demeanours.  In  the  day  of  Amos  this  pagan  super- 
stition thoroughly  penetrated  the  religion  of  Jehovah, 
and  so  absorbed  the  attention  of  men,  that  without  the 
indignant  and  complete  repudiation  of  it  prophecy  could 
not  have  started  on  her  task  of  identifying  morality 
with  religion,  and  of  teaching  men  more  spiritual  views 
of  God.  But  even  when  we  are  thus  aware  of  cere- 
monialism as  the  characteristic  quality  of  the  pagan 
religions,  we  have  not  measured  the  full  reason  of  that 
uncompromising  attack  on  it,  which  is  the  chief  feature 
of  this  part  of  the  permanent  canon  of  our  religion. 
For  idolatries  die  everywhere ;  but  everywhere  a  super- 
stitious ritualism  survives.  It  continues  with  philo- 
sophies that  have  ceased  to  believe  in  the  gods  who 
enforced  it.  Upon  ethical  movements  which  have 
gained  their  freedom  by  breaking  away  from  it,  in  the 
course  of  time  it  makes  up,  and  lays  its  paralysing 
weight.  With  offers  of  help  it  flatters  religions  the 
most  spiritual  in  theory  and  intention.  The  Pharisees, 
than  whom  few  parties  had  at  first  purer  ideals  of 
morality,  tithed  mint,  anise  and  cummin,  to  the 
neglect  of  the  essence  of  the  Law;  and  even  sound 
Christians,  who  have  assimilated  the  Gospel  of  St.  John, 
find  it  hard  and  sometimes  impossible  to  believe  in 
salvation  apart  from  their  own  sacraments,  or  outside 
their  own  denominational  forms.  Now  this  is  because 
ritual  is  a  thing  which  appeals  both  to  the  baser  and 
to  the  nobler  instincts  of  man.  To  the  baser  it  offers 
itself  as  a  mechanical  atonement  for  sin,  and  a  substitute 
for  all  moral  and  intellectual  effort  in  connection  with 
faith  ;  to  the  nobler  it  insists  on  a  man's  need  in  religion 
of  order  and  routine,  of  sacrament  and  picture.  Plainly 
then  the  words  of  Amos  have  significance  for  more 
than  the  immediate  problems  of  his  day.    And  if  it 


Amosiv.4-vi.]   THE  FALSE  PEACE  OF  RITUAL  159 


seem  to  some,  that  Amos  goes  too  far  with  his  cry  to 
sweep  away  all  ceremonial,  let  them  remember,  besides 
the  crisis  of  his  times,  that  the  temper  he  exposes  and 
seeks  to  dissipate  is  a  rank  and  obdurate  error  of  the 
human  heart.  Our  Lord,  who  recognised  the  place  of 
ritual  in  worship,  who  said.  Thus  it  behoveth  us  to  fulfil 
all  righteousness  J  which  righteousness  in  the  dialect  of 
His  day  was  not  the  moral  law,  but  man's  due  of  rite, 
sacrifice,  tithe  and  alms,^  said  also,  /  will  have  mercy  and 
not  sacrifice.  There  is  an  irreducible  minimum  of  rite 
and  routine  in  worship ;  there  is  an  invaluable  loyalty 
to  traditional  habits ;  there  are  holy  and  spiritual  uses 
in  symbol  and  sacrament.  But  these  are  all  dispensable ; 
and  because  they  are  all  constantly  abused,  the  voice 
of  the  prophet  is  ever  needed  which  tells  us  that  God 
will  have  none  of  them ;  but  let  justice  roll  on  like 
water,  and  righteousness  like  an  unfailing  stream. 

For  the  superstition  that  ritual  is  the  indispensable 
bond  between  God  and  man,  Amos  substitutes  two 
other  aspects  of  religion.  They  are  history  as  God's 
discipline  of  man  ;  and  civic  justice,  as  man's  duty  to 
God.  The  first  of  them  he  contrasts  with  religious  cere- 
monialism in  chap.  iv.  4-13,  and  the  second  in  chap.  v. ; 
while  in  chap.  vi.  he  assaults  once  more  the  false 
political  peace  which  the  ceremonialism  engenders, 

I.  For  Worship,  Chastisement. 

Amos  iv.  4-13. 

In  chap.  ii.  Amos  contrasted  the  popular  conception 
of  religion  as  worship  with  God's  conception  of  it  as 
history.    He  placed  a  picture  of  the  sanctuary,  hot 


'  Another  proof  of  how  the  spirit  of  ritualism  tends  to  absorb 
morality. 


i6o 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


with  religious  zeal,  but  hot  too  with  passion  and  the 
fumes  of  wine,  side  by  side  with  a  great  prospect  of  the 
national  history :  God's  guidance  of  Israel  from  Egypt 
onwards.  That  is,  as  we  said  at  the  time,  he  placed  an 
indoors  picture  of  religion  side  by  side  with  an  open- 
air  one.  He  repeats  that  arrangement  here.  The 
religious  services  he  sketches  are  more  pure,  and  the 
history  he  takes  from  his  own  day  ;  but  the  contrast 
is  the  same.  Again  we  have  on  the  one  side  the  temple 
worship — artificial,  exaggerated,  indoors,  smoky  ;  but  on 
the  other  a  few  movements  of  God  in  Nature,  which, 
though  they  all  be  calamities,  have  a  great  moral  majesty 
upon  them.  The  first  opens  with  a  scornful  call  to 
worship,  which  the  prophet,  letting  out  his  whole  heart 
at  the  beginning,  shows  to  be  equivalent  to  sin.  Note 
next  the  impossible  caricature  of  their  exaggerated  zeal : 
sacrifices  every  morning  instead  of  once  a  year,  tithes 
every  three  days  instead  of  every  three  years.^  To 
offer  leavened  bread  was  a  departure  from  the  older 
fashion  of  unleavened.^  To  publish  their  liberality  was 
like  the  later  Pharisees,  who  were  not  dissimilarly 
mocked  by  our  Lord :  When  thou  doest  alms^  cause  not 
a  trumpet  to  be  sounded  before  thee^  as  the  hypocrites  do 
in  the  synagogues  and  in  the  streets^  that  they  may  have 
glory  of  men?  There  is  a  certain  rhythm  in  the  taunt ; 
but  the  prose  style  seems  to  be  resumed  with  fitness 
when  the  prophet  describes  the  solemn  approach  of 
God  in  deeds  of  doom. 


•  Ver.  4 :  cf.  I  Sam.  i. ;  Deut.  xiv.  28.  Wellhausen  offers  another 
exegesis:  Amos  is  describing  exactly  what  took  place  at  Bethel — 
sacrifice  on  the  morning,  i.e.  next  to  the  day  of  their  arrival,  tithes 
on  the  third  day  thereafter. 

•  See  Wellhausen*s  note,  and  compare  Lev.  vii. 

•  Matt.  vi.  2. 


Amos  iv.  4-13  ]   THE  FALSE  PEACE  OF  RITUAL  161 


Come  away  to  Bethel  and  transgress^ 
At  Gilgal  exaggerate  your  transgression  t 
And  bring  every  morning  your  sacrifices^ 
Every  three  days  your  tithes  I 

And  send  up  the  savour  of  leavened  bread  as  a 
thank-offerings 

And  call  out  your  liberalities — make  them  to  be  heard  i 

For  so  ye  love  to  do,  O  children  of  Israel: 

Oracle  of  Jehovah. 

But  I  on  My  side  have  given  you  cleanness  of  teeth  in 
all  your  cities j  and  want  of  bread  in  all  your  places — yet 
ye  did  not  return  to  Me :  oracle  of  Jehovah. 

But  I  on  My  side  withheld  from  you  the  winter  rain^ 
while  it  was  still  three  months  to  the  harvest :  and  I  let  it 
rain  repeatedly  on  one  city,  and  upon  one  city  I  did  not  let 
it  rain :  one  lot  was  rained  upon,  and  the  lot  that  was 
not  rained  upon  withered;  and  two  or  three  cities  kept 
straggling  to  one  city  to  drink  water,  and  were  not  satisfied 
—yet  ye  did  not  return  to  Me:  oracle  of  Jehovah. 

I  smote  you  with  blasting  and  with  mildew  :  many  of 
your  gardens  and  your  vineyards  and  your  figs  and  your 
olives  the  locust  devoured— yet  ye  did  not  return  to  Me: 
oracle  of  Jehovah. 

I  sent  among  you  a  pestilence  by  way  oj  Egypt ;  *  /  slew 

*  D.^J;  Hist.  Geog.f  p.  64.  It  is  interesting  that  this  year  (1895) 
the  same  thing  was  threatened,  according  to  a  report  in  the  Mittheil- 
ungen  u.  Nachrichten  des  D.P.V.,  p.  44:  ''Nachdem  es  im  December 
einigemal  recht  stark  geregnet  hatte  besonders  an  der  Meereskiiste  ist 
seit  kuri  vor  Weihnachten  das  Wetter  immer  schOn  u.  mild  geblieben, 
u.  wenn  nicht  weiterer  Regen  fallt,  so  wird  grosser  Wassermangel 
entstehen  denn  bis  jetzt  (16  Febr.)  hat  Niemand  Cisterne  voll."  The 
harvest  is  in  April-May. 

'  Or  in  the  fashion  of  Egypt,  i.e.  a  thoroughly  Egyptian  plague ; 
so  called,  not  with  reference  to  the  plagues  of  Egypt,  but  because  that 
country  was  always  the  nursery  of  the  pestilence.  Sec  Hist.  Geog.^ 
p.  157  ff.    Note  how  it  comes  with  war. 

VOL.  I.  II 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


with  the  sword  your  youths — besides  the  capture  of  your 
horses — and  I  brought  up  the  stench  of  your  camps  to 
your  nostrils — yet  ye  did  not  return  to  Me:  oracle  of 
fehovah, 

I  overturned  among  you ^  like  Gods  own  overturning  of 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah^  till  ye  became  as  a  brand  plucked 
from  the  burning — yet  ye  did  not  return  to  Me :  oracle  of 
fehovah. 

This  recalls  a  passage  in  that  English  poem  of  which 
we  are  again  and  again  reminded  by  the  Book  of  Amos, 
The  Vision  of  Piers  Plowman,  It  is  the  sermon  of 
Reason  in  Passus  V.  (Skeat's  edition)  : — 

"  He  preved  that  thise  pestilences  *  were  for  pure  synne, 
And  the  southwest  wynde  •  in  saterday  et  evene 
Was  pertliche  '  for  pure  pride  •  and  for  no  poynt  elles. 
Piries  and  plomtrees  •  were  puffed  to  the  erthe, 
In  ensample  ze  segges  *  •  ze  shulden  do  the  bettere, 
Beches  and  brode  okes  *  were  blowen  to  the  grounde, 
Torned  upward  her  tallies  •  in  tokenynge  of  drede, 
That  dedly  synne  at  domesday  *  shal  fordon'  hem  alle.* 

In  the  ancient  world  it  was  a  settled  belief  that 
natural  calamities  like  these  were  the  effects  of  the 
deity's  wrath.  When  Israel  suffers  from  them  the 
prophets  take  for  granted  that  they  are  for  the  people's 
punishment.  I  have  elsewhere  shown  how  the  climate 
of  Palestine  lent  itself  to  these  convictions ;  in  this 
respect  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  contrasts  it  with 
the  climate  of  Egypt.*  And  although  some,  perhaps 
rightly,  have  scoffed  at  the  exaggerated  form  of  the 
belief,  that  God  is  angry  with  the  sons  of  men  every 
time  drought  or  floods  happen,  yet  the  instinct  is 
sound  which  in  all  ages  has  led  religious  people  to 


*  Apertly,  openly,  •  Undo, 

•  Men,  *  Hist,  Geog.,  Chap,  iii.,  pp.  73  £ 


Amos iv. 4-13-]   THE  FALSE  PEACE  OF  RITUAL  163 


feel  that  such  things  are  inflicted  for  moral  purposes. 
In  the  economy  of  the  universe  there  may  be  ends  of 
a  purely  physical  kind  served  by  such  disasters,  apart 
altogether  from  their  meaning  to  man.  But  man  at  least 
learns  from  them  that  nature  does  not  exist  solely  for 
feeding,  clothing  and  keeping  him  wealthy ;  nor  is  it 
anything  else  than  his  monotheism,  his  faith  in  God 
as  the  Lord  both  of  his  moral  life  and  of  nature,  v^hich 
moves  him  to  believe,  as  Hebrew  prophets  taught  and 
as  our  early  English  seer  heard  Reason  herself  preach. 
Amos  had  the  more  need  to  explain  those  disasters  as 
the  work  of  the  God  of  righteousness,  because  his  con- 
temporaries, while  willing  to  grant  Jehovah  leadership 
in  war,  were  tempted  to  attribute  to  the  Canaanite  gods 
of  the  land  all  power  over  the  seasons. 

What,  however,  more  immediately  concerns  us  in  this 
passage  is  its  very  effective  contrast  between  men's 
treatment  of  God  and  God's  treatment  of  men.  They 
lavish  upon  Him  gifts  and  sacrifices.  He — on  His  side 
— sends  them  cleanness  of  teeth,  drought,  blasting  of 
their  fruits,  pestilence,  war  and  earthquake.  That  is  to 
say,  they  regard  Him  as  a  being  only  to  be  flattered 
and  fed.  He  regards  them  as  creatures  with  characters 
to  discipline,  even  at  the  expense  of  their  material 
welfare.  Their  views  of  Him,  if  religious,  are  sensuous 
and  gross ;  His  views  of  them,  if  austere,  are  moral  and 
ennobling.  All  this  may  be  grim,  but  it  is  exceeding 
grand ;  and  short  as  the  efforts  of  Amos  are,  we  begin 
to  perceive  in  him  something  already  of  the  greatness 
of  an  Isaiah. 

And  have  not  those,  who  have  believed  as  Amos 
believed,  ever  been  the  strong  spirits  of  our  race,  making 
the  very  disasters  which  crushed  them  to  the  earth  the 
otkens  that  God  has  great  views  about  thcni  ?  Laugh 


i64 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


not  at  the  simple  peoples,  who  have  their  days  of 
humiliation,  and  their  fast-days  after  floods  and  stunted 
harvests.  For  they  take  these,  not  like  other  men,  as 
the  signs  of  their  frailty  and  helplessness;  but  as 
measures  of  the  greatness  God  sees  in  them.  His 
provocation  of  their  souls  to  the  infinite  possibilities 
which  He  has  prepared  for  them. 

Israel,  however,  did  not  turn  even  at  the  fifth  call  to 
penitence,  and  so  there  remained  nothing  for  her  but  a 
fearful  looking  forward  to  judgment,  all  the  more  terrible 
that  the  prophet  does  not  define  what  the  judgment 
shall  be. 

Therefore  thus  shall  I  do  to  thee^  O  Israel:  because  I 
am  going  to  do  this  to  theCj  prepare  to  meet  thy  Gody  O 
Israel,  For,  loy  He  that  formeth  the  mountains,  and 
createth  the  wind,  and  declareth  to  man  what  His  thought 
is,  that  maketh  morning  darkness,  and  marcheth  on  the 
high  places  of  earth,  Jehovah,  Cod  of  Hosts,  is  His  Name} 

2.  For  Worship,  Justice. 

Amos  v. 

In  the  next  of  these  groups  of  oracles  Amos  continues 
his  attack  on  the  national  ritual,  and  now  contrasts  it 
with  the  service  of  God  in  public  life — the  relief  of  the 
poor,  the  discharge  of  justice.  But  he  does  not  begin 
with  this.  The  group  opens  with  an  elegy,  which 
bewails  the  nation  as  already  fallen.  It  is  always 
difficult  to  mark  where  the  style  of  a  prophet  passes 
from  rhythmical  prose  into  what  we  may  justly  call  a 
metrical  form.  But  in  this  short  wail,  we  catch  the 
well-known  measure  of  the  Hebrew  dirge ;  not  so 


This  and  similar  passages  are  dealt  with  by  themselves  in 
Chap.  XL 


Amos  v.]       THE  FALSE  PEACE  OF  RITUAL  165 


artistic  as  in  later  poems,  yet  with  at  least  the  charac- 
teristic couplet  of  a  long  and  a  short  line. 

Hear  this  word  which  I  lift  up  against  you — a  Dirge^ 
O  house  of  Israel: — 

Fallen^  no  more  shall  she  rise, 

Virgin  of  Israel  I 
Flung  down  on  her  own  ground. 

No  one  to  raise  her  I 

The  Virgin^  which  with  Isaiah  is  a  standing  title  for 
Jerusalem  and  occasionally  used  of  other  cities,  is  here 
probably  the  whole  nation  of  Northern  Israel.  The 
explanation  follows.  It  is  War.  For  thus  saith  the 
Lord  fehovah  :  The  city  that  goeth  forth  a  thousand  shall 
have  an  hundred  left;  and  she  that  goeth  forth  an  hundred 
shall  have  left  ten  for  the  house  of  Israel, 

But  judgment  is  not  yet  irrevocable.  There  break 
forthwith  the  only  two  promises  which  lighten  the  lower- 
ing darkness  of  the  book.  Let  the  people  turn  to 
Jehovah  Himself — and  that  means  let  them  turn  from 
the  ritual,  and  instead  of  it  purge  their  civic  life,  restore 
justice  in  their  courts  and  help  the  poor.  For  God  and 
moral  good  are  one.  It  is  seek  Me  and  ye  shall  live^  and 
seek  good  and  ye  shall  live.  Omitting  for  the  present  all 
argument  as  to  whether  the  interruption  of  praise  to 
the  power  of  Jehovah  be  from  Amos  or  another,  we 
read  the  whole  oracle  as  follows. 

Thus  saith  fehovah  to  the  house  oj  Israel:  Seek  Me 
and  live.  But  seek  not  Bethel^  and  come  not  to  Gilgal^ 
and  to  Beersheba  pass  not  over — to  come  to  Beersheba 
one  had  to  cross  all  Judah.  For  Gilgal  shall  taste  the 
gall  of  exile — it  is  not  possible  except  in  this  clumsy 
way  to  echo  the  prophet's  play  upon  words,  "  Ha-Gilgal 
galoh  yigleh  " — and  Bethel^  God's  house,  shall  become  an 


i66 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


idolatry.  This  rendering,  however,  scarcely  gives  the 
rude  force  of  the  original ;  for  the  word  rendered 
idolatry,  Aven,  means  also  falsehood  and  perdition, 
so  that  we  should  not  exaggerate  the  antithesis  if  we 
employed  a  phrase  which  once  was  not  vulgar :  And 
Bethel^  house  of  God^  shall  go  to  the  devil  I  *  The  epigram 
was  the  more  natural  that  near  Bethel,  on  a  site  now 
uncertain,  but  close  to  the  edge  of  the  desert  to  which 
it  gave  its  name,  there  lay  from  ancient  times  a  village 
actually  called  Beth-Aven,  however  the  form  may  have 
risen.  And  we  shall  find  Hosea  stereotyping  this 
epigram  of  Amos,  and  calling  the  sanctuary  Beth-Aven 
oftener  than  he  calls  it  Beth-El.^  Seek  ye  Jehovah  and 
live^  he  begins  again,  lest  He  break  forth  like  fire^  O  house 
of  Joseph,  and  it  consume  and  there  be  none  to  quench  at 
'  Bethel.^  .  .  .*  He  that  made  the  Seven  Stars  and  Orion^ 


*  Cf.  LXX. :  Bat^T^X  ^otoa  ws  oi^x  virdfixovtra, 

*  The  name  Bethel  is  always  printed  as  one  word  in  our  Hebrew 
texts.    See  Baer  on  Gen.  xii.  8. 

■  Wellhausen  thinks  at  Bethel  not  genuine.  But  Bethel  has  been 
singled  out  as  the  place  where  the  people  put  their  false  confidence, 
and  is  naturally  named  here.    LXX. :       olKip  'lapaijK, 

Ver.  7  is  plainly  out  of  place  here,  as  the  LXX.  perceived,  and 
therefore  tried  to  give  it  anothei  rendering  which  would  make  it 
seem  in  place :  6  toiu>v  els  t^pos  Kpt/Ma,  Kcd  dLKaLoavvrjv  els  yrfv  ^drjKev, 
So  Ewald  removed  it  to  between  vv.  9  and  10.  There  it  begins  well 
another  oracle ;  and  it  may  be  that  we  should  insert  before  it  '•in, 
as  in  vv.  18,  vi.  I. 

*  Literally  the  Group  and  the  Giant.  HD^D,  Kimah,  signifies  group, 
or  little  heap.  Here  it  is  rendered  by  Aq.  and  at  Job  ix.  9  by 
LXX.  *ApKTovpos;  and  here  by  Theod.  and  in  Job  xxxviii.  31,  the 
chain,  or  cluster,  of  the  group  IlXetdSes  The  Targ.  and  Pesh.  always 
give  it  as  Kima,  i.e,  Pleiades.  And  this  is  the  rendering  of  most 
moderns.  But  Stern  takes  it  for  Sirius  with  its  constellation  of  the 
Great  Dog,  for  the  reason  that  this  is  the  brightest  of  all  stars,  and 
therefore  a  more  suitable  fellow  for  Orion  than  the  dimmer  Pleiades 
can  be.    ^^D3,  the  Fool  or  Giant,  is  the  Hebrew  name  of  'Qpiwv,  by 


Amos  v.]       TliE  FALSE  PEACE  OF  RITUAL 


167 


that  turneth  the  murk^  into  mornings  and  day  He 
darkeneth  to  nighty  that  calleth  for  the  waters  of  the  sea 
and  poureth  them  out  on  the  face  of  the  earth — Jehovah 
His  Name,  He  it  is  that  flasheth  out  ruin  ^  on  strength^ 
and  bringeth  down  ^  destruction  on  the  fortified.  This 
rendering  of  the  last  verse  is  uncertain,  and  rightly 
suspected,  but  there  is  no  alternative  so  probable,  and 
it  returns  to  the  keynote  from  which  the  passage  started, 
that  God  should  break  forth  like  fire. 

Ah,  they  that  turn  justice  to  wormwood^  and  abase^ 
righteousness  to  the  earth !  They  hate  him  that  re^ 
proveth  in  the  gate — in  an  Eastern  city  both  the  law- 
court  and  place  of  the  popular  council — and  him  that 
speaketh  sincerely  they  abhor.  So  in  the  English  mystic's 
Vision  Peace  complains  of  Wrong : — 

"I  dar  noughte  for  fere  of  hym  •  fyghte  ne  chyde."* 

Wherefore^  because  ye  trample  on  the  weak  and  take  from 
him  a  present  of  corn^  ye  have  built  houses  of  ashlar^ 
but  ye  shall  not  dwell  in  them  ;  vineyards  for  pleasure 
have  ye  planted^  but  ye  shall  not  drink  of  their  wine. 
For  I  know  how  many  are  your  crimes^  and  how  forceful^ 

which  the  LXX.  render  it.    Targum  To  the  ancient  world 

the  constellation  looked  like  the  figure  of  a  giant  fettered  in  heaven, 
"a  fool  so  far  as  he  trusted  in  his  bodily  strength  "  (Dillmann).  In 
later  times  he  was  called  Nimrod.  His  early  setting  came  at  the  time 
of  the  early  rains.    Cf.  with  the  passage  Job  ix.  9  and  xxxviii.  31. 

*  The  abstract  noun  meaning  deep  shadow,  LXX.  (r/ctd,  and  rendered 
shadow  of  death  by  many  modern  versions. 

*  So  LXX.,  reading  ^'2.^  for  1^;  it  improves  the  rhythm,  and 
escapes  the  awkward  repetition  of  ^t^, 

•  So  LXX. 

*  Possible  alternative  :  make  stagnant, 

•  Vision  cf  Piers  Plowman,  Passus  IV.,  1.  52.  Cf.  the  whole  passage. 

•  Uncertain ;  Hitzig  takes  it  as  the  apodosis  of  the  previous  clause  ; 
Yt  shall  hnve  to  take  ^rum  him  a  present  of  corn,  i.e.  as  alms. 

'  See  above,  p.  33.  •  Ct  **  Pecca  forliter.** 


i68 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


your  sins — ye  that  browbeat  the  rtghteouSy  take  bribes,  and 
bring  down  the  poor  in  the  gate  I  Therefore  the  prudent 
in  such  a  time  is  dumbj  for  an  evil  time  is  it  indeed. 

Seek  good  and  not  evil,  that  ye  may  live,  and  Jehovah 
God  of  Hosts  be  with  you,  as  ye  say  He  is.  Hate  evil 
and  love  good ;  and  in  the  gate  set  justice  on  her  feet 
again — peradventure  Jehovah  God  of  Hosts  may  have 
pity  on  the  remnant  of  Joseph,  If  in  the  Book  of  Amos 
there  be  any  passages,  which,  to  say  the  least,  do  not 
now  He  in  their  proper  places,  this  is  one  of  them.  For, 
firstly,  while  it  regards  the  nation  as  still  responsible 
for  the  duties  of  government,  it  recognises  them  as 
reduced  to  a  remnant.  To  find  such  a  state  of  affairs 
we  have  to  come  down  to  the  years  subsequent  to  734, 
when  Tiglath-Pileser  swept  into  captivity  all  Gilead  and 
Galilee — that  is,  two-thirds,  in  bulk,  of  the  territory 
of  Northern  Israel — but  left  Ephraim  untouched.  In 
answer  to  this,  it  may,  of  course,  be  pointed  out 
that  in  thus  calling  the  people  to  repentance,  so  that 
a  remnant  might  be  saved,  Amos  may  have  been 
contemplating  a  disaster  still  future,  from  which,  though 
it  was  inevitable,  God  might  be  moved  to  spare  a 
remnant.^  That  is  very  true.  But  it  does  not  meet 
this  further  difficulty,  that  the  verses  (14,  15)  plainly 
make  interruption  between  the  end  of  ver.  13  and 
the  beginning  of  ver.  16;  and  that  the  initial  therefore 
of  the  latter  verse,  while  it  has  no  meaning  in  its 
present  sequence,  becomes  natural  and  appropriate 
when  made  to  follow  immediately  on  ver.  13.  For 
all  these  reasons,  then,  I  take  vv.  14  and  15  as  a 
parenthesis,  whether  from  Amos  himself  or  from  a 
later  writer  who  can  tell  ?    But  it  ought  to  be  kept  in 


As,  for  instance,  the  prophet  looks  forward  to  in  iii.  12. 


Amos  V.J       THE  FALSE  PEACE  OF  RITUAL  169 


mind  that  in  other  prophetic  writings  where  judgment 
is  very  severe,  we  have  some  proof  of  the  later  insertion 
of  calls  to  repentance,  by  way  of  mitigation. 

Ver.  13  had  said  the  time  was  so  evil  that  the 
prudent  man  kept  silence.  All  the  more  must  the 
Lord  Himself  speak,  as  ver.  16  now  proclaims.  There- 
fore thus  saith  Jehovah^  God  of  Hosts Lord:  On  all 
open  ways  lamentation^  and  in  all  streets  they  shall  be 
saying,  Ah  woe !  Ah  woe !  And  in  all  vineyards 
lamentation^  and  they  shall  call  the  ploughman  to  wailing 
and  to  lamentation  them  that  are  skilful  in  dirges — town 
and  country,  rustic  and  artist  alike— ^br  /  shall  pass 
through  thy  midst,  saith  Jehovah.  It  is  the  solemn 
formula  of  the  Great  Passover,  when  Egypt  was  filled 
with  wailing  and  there  were  dead  in  every  house. 

The  next  verse  starts  another,  but  a  kindred,  theme. 
As  blind  as  was  Israel's  confidence  in  ritual,  so  blind 
was  their  confidence  in  dogma,  and  the  popular  dogma 
was  that  of  the  Day  of  Jehovah, 

All  popular  hopes  expect  their  victory  to  come  in  a 
single  sharp  crisis — a  day.  And  again,  the  day  of 
any  one  means  either  the  day  he  has  appointed,  or 
the  day  of  his  display  and  triumph.  So  Jehovah's  day 
meant  to  the  people  the  day  of  His  judgment,  or  of 
His  triumph  :  His  triumph  in  war  over  their  enemies, 
His  judgment  upon  the  heathen.  But  Amos,  whose 
keynote  has  been  that  judgment  begins  at  home,  cries 
woe  upon  such  hopes,  and  tells  his  people  that  for  them 
the  day  of  Jehovah  is  not  victory,  but  rather  insidious, 
importunate,  inevitable  death.  And  this  he  describes 
as  a  man  who  has  lived,  alone  with  wild  beasts,  from 

*  God  of  Hosts,  perhaps  an  intrusion  (?)  between  OIN  and  T\\7X^, 

•  I  have  ventured  to  rearrange  the  order  of  the  clauses,  which  iv 
the  original  is  evidently  dislocated. 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


the  jungles  of  the  Jordan,  where  the  lions  lurk,  to  the 
huts  of  the  desert  infested  by  snakes. 

Woe  unto  them  that  long  for  the  day  of  Jehovah  I 
What  have  you  to  do  with  the  day  oj  Jehovah  ?  It  is 
darknesSy  and  not  light.  As  when  a  man  fleeth  from 
the  face  of  a  lion^  and  a  bear  falls  upon  him;  and  he 
comes  into  his  home^  and^  breathless,  leans  his  hand  upon 
the  wallf  and  a  serpent  bites  him.  And  then,  as  if  appeal- 
ing to  Heaven  for  confirmation  :  Is  it  not  so  ?  Is  it 
not  darknesSy  the  day  of  Jehovah^  and  not  light  ?  storm 
darkness^  and  not  a  ray  of  light  upon  it  ? 

Then  Amos  returns  to  the  worship,  that  nurse  of 
their  vain  hopes,  that  false  prophet  of  peace,  and  he 
hears  God  speak  more  strongly  than  ever  of  its  futility 
and  hatefulness. 

/  hatCf  I  loathe  your  feasts^  and  I  will  not  smell  the 
savour  of  your  gatherings  to  sacrifice.  For  with  pagan 
folly  they  still  believed  that  the  smoke  of  their  burnt- 
offerings  went  up  to  heaven  and  flattered  the  nostrils 
of  Deity.  How  ingrained  was  this  belief  may  be 
judged  by  us  from  the  fact  that  the  terms  of  it  had 
to  be  adopted  by  the  apostles  of  a  spiritual  religion, 
if  they  would  make  themselves  understood,  and  are 
now  the  metaphors  of  the  sacrifices  of  the  Christian 
heart.^  Though  ye  bring  to  Me  burnt-offerings  and  your 
meal-offerings  I  will  not  be  pleased^  or  your  thank- 
offerings  of  fatted  calveSy  I  will  not  look  at  them.  Let 
cease  from  Me  the  noise  of  thy  songs  ;  to  the  playing  of 
thy  viols  I  will  not  listen.  But  let  justice  roll  on  like 
watery  and  righteousness  like  an  unfailing  stream. 

Then  follows  the  remarkable  appeal  from  the  habits 
of  this  age  to  those  of  the  times  of  Israel's  simplicity. 
Was  it  flesh-  or  meal-offerings  that  ye  brought  Me  in  the 
'  Lit.  the  house.  ^  £ph.  v.  2 ;  etc 


Amos  v.]       THE  FALSE  PEACE  OF  RITUAL 


171 


wilderner.Sj  forty  years^  O  house  of  Israel  ?  ^  That  is  to 
say,  at  the  very  time  when  God  made  Israel  His  people, 
aijrj  led  them  safely  to  the  promised  land — the  time 
wh^.n  of  all  others  He  did  most  for  them — He  was 
not  moved  to  such  love  and  deliverance  by  the  pro- 
pitiatory bribes,  which  this  generation  imagine  to 
be  so  avaih'ng  and  indispensable.  Nay,  those  still 
shall  not  avail,  for  exile  from  the  land  shall  now  as 
surely  come  in  spite  of  them,  as  the  possession  of 
the  land  in  old  times  came  without  them.  This  at 
least  seems  to  be  the  drift  of  the  very  obscure  verse 
which  follows,  and  is  the  unmistakable  statement  of 
the  close  of  the  oracle.  But  ye  shall  lift  up  .  ,  .  your 
king  and  .  .  .  your  god^  images  which  you  have  made 
for  yourselves;  *  and  I  will  carry  you  away  into  exile  far 

*  No  one  doubts  that  this  verse  is  interrogative.  But  the  Autho- 
rised Eng.  Ver.  puts  it  in  a  form — Have  ye  brought  unto  Me  ?  etc. — 
which  implies  blame  that  they  did  not  do  so.  Ewald  was  the  first  to 
see  that,  as  rendered  above,  an  appeal  to  the  forty  years  was  the 
real  intention  of  the  verse.  So  after  him  nearly  all  critics,  also  the 
Revised  Eng.  Ver.  :  Did  ye  bring  unto  Me  ?  On  the  whole  question 
of  the  possibility  of  such  an  appeal  see  above,  pp.  100  ff.,  and  cf. 
Jer.  vii.  22,  which  distinctly  declares  that  in  the  wilderness  God 
prescribed  no  ritual  to  Israel. 

"  Ver.  26  is  very  difficult,  for  both  the  text  and  the  rendering  of 
all  the  possible  alternatives  of  it  are  quite  uncertain.  (l)  As  to  the 
ttxt^  the  present  division  into  words  must  be  correct;  at  least  no 
other  is  possible.  But  the  present  order  of  the  words  is  obviously 
wrong.  For  your  images  is  evidently  described  by  the  relative  clause 
which  vou  have  made^  and  ought  to  stand  next  it.  What  then  is  to 
be  done  with  the  two  words  that  at  present  come  between — star  of 
your  godl  Are  they  both  a  mere  gloss,  as  Robertson  Smith  holds, 
»nd  therefore  to  be  struck  out  ?  or  should  they  precede  the  pair  of 
words,  DD^O^^  which  they  now  follow?  This  is  the  order  of  the 
text  which  the  LXX.  translator  had  before  him,  only  for  J13  he  mis- 
read |Qn  or  Ijn  t  KQ,i  dveXd^ere  ttjv  (TK7]V7)v  rov  MwX6x  '''^  Harpw 
rou  GeoC  vy^Civ  'Faicpdy  ['Pc^Ctj/,  Q],  tous  tvttovs  aurQv  [om.  AQ]  oOf 
i-roi-ffaart  iavToh.    This  arrangement  has  the  further  evidence  in  its 


172 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


beyond  Damascus^  saith  Jehovah — God  of  Hosts  is  His 
Name  I     So  this  chapter  closes  like  the  previous,  with 

favour,  that  it  brings  your  god  into  proper  parallel  with  your  king. 
The  Hebrew  text  would  then  run  thus : — 

(2)  The  translation  of  this  text  is  equally  difficult :  not  in  the  verb 
for  both  the  grammar  and  the  argument  oblige  us  to  take  it 
as  future,  and  ye  shall  lift  up)  but  in  the  two  words  HIDD  and  [VD. 
Are  these  common  nouns,  or  proper  names  of  deities  in  apposition  to 
your  king  and  your  god?  The  LXX.  takes  fll^D  as  =  tabernacle^  and 
JVD  as  a  proper  name  (Theodotion  takes  both  as  proper  names). 
The  Auth.  Eng.  Ver.  follows  the  LXX.  (except  that  it  takes  king 
for  the  name  Moloch).  Schrader  {Stud.  u.  Krit.,  1874,  324;  K.A.T., 
442  f.)  takes  them  as  the  consonants  of  Sakkut,  a  name  of  the  Assyrian 
god  Adar,  and  of  Kewan,  the  Assyrian  name  for  the  planet  Saturn  :  Ye 
shall  take  up  Sakkut  your  king  and  Kewan  your  star-god^  your  images 
vukich . .  .  Baethgen  goes  further  and  takes  both  the  "J^D  of  DD'^iD^D  and 
the  D^V  of  DlD^'D'P^f  as  Moloch  and  Selam,  proper  names,  in  combination 
with  Sakkut  and  Kewan  {Beitr.  z.  Sent,  Rely  239).  Now  it  is  true 
that  the  Second  Book  of  Kings  implies  that  the  worship  of  the  host 
of  heaven  existed  in  Samaria  before  its  fall  (2  Kings  xvii.  16),  but 
the  introduction  into  Samaria  of  Assyrian  gods  (among  them  Adar) 
is  placed  by  it  after  the  fall  (2  Kings  xvii.  31),  and  besides,  Amos 
does  not  elsewhere  speak  of  the  worship  of  foreign  gods,  nor  is  the 
mention  of  them  in  any  way  necessary  to  the  argument  here.  On 
the  contrary,  even  if  Amos  were  to  mention  the  worship  of  idols  by 
Israel,  would  he  have  selected  at  this  point  the  Assyrian  ones  ?  (See, 
however,  Tiele,  Revue  de  VHistoire  des  Religions^  III.,  p.  21 1,  who 
makes  Koun  and  the  planet  Keiwan  purely  Phoenician  deities.) 
Some  critics  take  DIDD  and  JVD  as  common  nouns  in  the  construct 
state.  So  Ewald,  and  so  most  recently  Robertson  Smith  (O.T.J.Cf  2) : 
the  shrine  of  your  king  and  the  stand  of  your  images.  This  is  more  in 
harmony  with  the  absence  from  the  rest  of  Amos  of  any  hint  as  to  the 
worship  of  idols,  but  an  objection  to  it,  and  a  very  strong  one,  is  that 
the  alleged  common  nouns  are  not  found  elsewhere  in  Hebrew.  In 
view  of  this  conflicting  evidence  it  is  best  therefore  to  leave  the  words 
intranslated,  as  in  the  text  above.  It  is  just  possible  that  they  may 
themselves  be  later  insertions,  for  the  verse  would  read  very  well 
without  them  :  And  ye  shall  lift  up  your  king  and  your  images  which 
you  have  made  to  yourselves. 

The  last  clause  is  peculiar.    Two  clauses  seem  to  have  run  intc 


Amosv.,vi.]     THE  FALSE  PEACE  OF  RITUAL  173 


the  marshalling  of  God's  armies.  But  as  there  His 
hosts  were  the  movements  of  Nature  and  the  Great 
Stars,  so  here  they  are  the  nations  of  the  world.  By 
His  rule  of  both  He  is  the  God  of  Hosts. 

3.  "At  Ease  in  Zion.** 

Amos  vi. 

The  evil  of  the  national  worship  was  the  false  politi- 
cal confidence  which  it  engendered.  Leaving  the 
ritual  alone,  Amos  now  proceeds  to  assault  this  con- 
fidence. We  are  taken  from  the  public  worship  of  the 
people  to  the  private  banquets  of  the  rich,  but  again 
only  in  order  to  have  their  security  and  extravagance 
contrasted  with  the  pestilence,  the  war  and  the  cap- 
tivity, that  are  rapidly  approaching. 

Woe  unto  them  that  are  at  ease  in  Zion  ^ — it  is  a  proud 
and  overweening  ease  which  the  word  expresses — and 
that  trust  in  the  mount  of  Samaria  !  Men  of  mark  of  the 
first  of  the  peoples — ironically,  for  that  is  Israel's  opinion 
of  itself — and  to  them  do  the  house  of  Israel  resort!  ,  . 


one — saith  Jehovah,  God  of  Hosts^  and  God  of  Hosts  is  His  Name, 
The  word  IDJ^  =  His  Name,  may  have  been  added  to  give  the  oracle 
the  same  conclusion  as  the  oracle  at  the  end  of  the  preceding 
chapter ;  and  it  is  not  to  be  overlooked  that  IDS^  at  the  end  of  a  clause 
does  not  occur  elsewhere  in  the  book  outside  the  three  questioned 
Doxologies  iv.  13,  v.  8,  ix.  6.    Further,  see  below,  pp.  204  f. 

'  In  Zion  :  "very  suspicious,"  Cornill.    But  see  pp.  135  f. 

•  I  remove  ver.  2  to  a  note,  not  that  I  am  certain  that  it  is  not 
by  Amos — who  can  be  dogmatic  on  such  a  point  ? — but  because  the 
text  of  it,  the  place  which  it  occupies,  and  its  relation  to  the  facts 
of  current  history,  all  raise  doubts.  Moreover  it  is  easily  detached 
from  the  context,  without  disturbing  the  flow  of  the  chapter,  which 
indeed  runs  more  equably  without  it.  The  Massoretic  text  gives  : 
Pass  over  to  Ca/neh,  and  see;  and  go  thence  to  Hamath  Rabbah^ 
and  come  down  to  Gath  of  the  Philistines :  are  they  better  than  thes4 
kingdoms,  or  is  their  ten  itory  larger  than  yours  ?    Presumably  th€S4 


174 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Ye  that  put  off  the  day  of  calamity  ^  and  draw  near  the 
sessions  of  injustice^ — an  epigram  and  proverb,  for  it 
is  the  universal  way  of  men  to  wish  and  fancy  far 
away  the  very  crisis  that  their  sins  are  hastening  on. 
Isaiah  described  this  same  generation  as  drawing 
iniquity  with  cords  of  hypocrisy,  and  sin  as  it  were 
with  a  cart-rope  I  That  lie  on  ivory  diwans  and  sprawl 
on  their  couches — another  luxurious  custom,  which 
filled  this  rude  shepherd  with  contempt — and  eat  lambs 
from  the  flock  and  calves  from  the  midst  of  the  stall  ^ — 

kingdoms  are  Judah  and  Israel.  But  that  can  only  mean  that  Israel 
is  the  best  of  the  peoples,  a  statement  out  of  harmony  with  the  irony 
of  ver.  I,  and  impossible  in  the  mouth  of  Amos.  Geiger,  therefore, 
proposes  to  read  :  "  Are  you  better  than  these  kingdoms — i.e.  Calneh, 
Hamath,  Gath— or  is  your  territory  larger  than  theirs?"  But 
this  is  also  unlikely,  for  Israel's  territory  was  much  larger  than 
Gath's.  Besides,  the  question  would  have  force  only  if  Calneh, 
Hamath  and  Gath  had  already  fallen.  Gath  had,  but  it  is  at  least 
very  questionable  whether  Hamath  had.  Therefore  Schrader  (K.A,  7"., 
444)  rejects  the  whole  verse;  and  Kuenen  agrees  that  if  we  are  to 
understand  Assyrian  conquests,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  retain  the 
verses.  Bickell's  first  argument  against  the  verse,  that  it  does  not 
fit  into  the  metrical  system  of  Amos  vi.  1-7,  is  precarious ;  his  second, 
that  it  disturbs  the  grammar,  which  it  makes  to  jump  suddenly  from 
the  third  person  in  ver.  I  to  the  second  in  ver.  2,  and  back  to  the 
third  in  ver.  3,  is  not  worth  anything,  for  such  a  jump  occurs  within 
ver.  3  itself. 

*  Davidson,  Syntax,  §  100,  R.  5* 

*  DDn  r\2^;  LXX.  aa^^dria^  il/evBQv,  on  which  hint  Hoffmann 
renders  the  verse :  "  you  that  daily  demand  the  tribute  of  evil 
(cf.  Ezek.  xvi.  33),  and  every  Sabbath  extort  by  violence."  But  this  is 
both  unnecessary  and  opposed  to  viii.  5,  which  tells  us  no  trade  was 
done  on  the  Sabbath.  T)2^^  is  to  be  taken  in  the  common  sense  oi 
sitting  in  judgment  (rather  than  with  Wellhausen),  in  the  sense  of 
the  enthronement  of  wrong-doing. 

*  To  this  day,  in  some  parts  of  Palestine,  the  general  fold  into 
which  the  cattle  are  shut  contains  a  portion  railed  off  for  calves  and 
lambs  (cf.  Dr.  M.  Blanckenhorn  of  Erlangen  in  the  Miiiheilungen  u, 
Nachrichten  of  the  D.P.V^  1895,  p.  37,  with  a  sketch).  It  must  be  this 
to  which  Amos  refers. 


Amosvi.]      THE  FALSE  PEACE  OF  RITUAL  175 


that  is,  only  the  most  delicate  of  meats — who  prate  or 
purr  or  babble  io  the  sound  of  the  violj  and  as  if  they 
were  David  himself  invent  for  them  instruments  of 
song;^  who  drink  wine  by  eiverfuls — waterpotfuls — and 
anoint  with  the  finest  of  oil— yet  never  do  they  grieve  at 
the  havoc  of  foseph!  The  havoc  is  the  moral  havoc, 
for  the  social  structure  of  Israel  is  obviously  still 
secure.*  The  rich  are  indifferent  to  it ;  they  have 
wealth,  art,  patriotism,  religion,  but  neither  heart  for 
the  poverty  nor  conscience  for  the  sin  of  their  people. 
We  know  their  kind  I  They  are  always  with  us,  who 
live  well  and  imagine  they  are  proportionally  clever 
and  refined.  They  have  their  political  zeal,  will  rally 
to  an  election  when  the  interests  of  their  class  or 
their  trade  is  in  danger.  They  have  a  robust  and 
exuberant  patriotism,  talk  grandly  of  commerce,  empire 
and  the  national  destiny ;  but  for  the  real  woes  and 
sores  of  the  people,  the  poverty,  the  overwork,  the 
drunkenness,  the  dissoluteness,  which  more  affect  a 
nation's  life  than  anything  else,  they  have  no  pity  and 
no  care. 

Therefore  now — the  double  initial  of  judgment — 
shall  ihey  go  into  exile  at  the  head  of  the  exiles^  and 
stilled  shall  be  the  revelry  of  the  dissolute — literally  the 
sprawlerSy  as  in  ver.  4,  bvit  used  here  rather  in  the 
moral  than  in  the  physical  sense.  Sworn  hath  the 
Lord  Jehovah  by  Himself— lis  the  oracle  of  Jehovah 


'  Or  perhaps  melodies^  airs. 

•  Of  course,  it  is  possible  that  here  again,  as  in  v.  15  and  16,  we 
have  prophecy  later  than  the  dibaster  of  734,  when  Tiglath-Pileser 
made  a  great  breach  or  havoc  in  the  body  politic  of  Israel  by  taking 
Gilcad  and  Galilee  captive.  But  this  is  scarcely  probable,  for  Amos 
almost  everywhere  lays  stress  -ipon  the  moral  corruption  of  Israel,  as 
her  real  and  essential  danger. 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


God  of  Hosts :  I  am  loathing^  the  pride  of  Jacob  ^  and  his 
palaces  do  I  hate^  and  I  will  pack  up  a  city  and  its  fuU 
ness}  .  .  .  For^  behold^  Jehovah  is  commanding,  and  He 
will  smite  the  great  house  into  ruins  and  the  small  house 
into  splinters.  The  collapse  must  come,  postpone  it 
as  their  fancy  will,  for  it  has  been  worked  for  and  is 
inevitable.  How  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  Shall  horses 
run  on  a  cliff,  or  the  sea  be  ploughed  by  oxen  ^ — that  ye 
should  turn  justice  to  poison  and  the  fruit  of  righteous- 
ness to  wormwood  I  Ye  that  exult  in  Lo-Debar  and 
say,  By  our  own  strength  have  we  taken  to  ourselves 
Karnaim,  So  Gratz  rightly  reads  the  verse.  The 
Hebrew  text  and  all  the  versions  take  these  names  as 
if  they  were  common  nouns — Lo-Debar,  a  thing  of 
nought ;  Karnaim,  a  pair  of  horns — and  doubtless  it  was 
just  because  of  this  possible  play  upon  their  names, 
that  Amos  selected  these  two  out  of  all  the  recent 
conquests  of  Israel.  Karnaim,  in  full  Ashteroth 
Karnaim,  Astarte  of  Horns,  was  that  immemorial 
fortress  and  sanctuary  which  lay  out  upon  the  great 
plateau  of  Bashan  towards  Damascus  ;  so  obvious  and 
cardinal  a  site  that  it  appears  in  the  sacred  history 
both  in  the  earliest  recorded  campaign  in  Abraham's 
time  and  in  one  of  the  latest  under  the  Maccabees.* 
Lo-Debar  was  of  Gilead,  and  probably  lay  on  that 
last  rampart  of  the  province  northward,  overlooking 
the  Yarmuk,  a  strategical  point  which  must  have 

>  nxn^D  for  nrno 

•  Some  words  must  have  dropped  out  here.  For  these  and  the 
following  verses  9  and  10  on  the  pestilence  see  pp.  178  flf, 

•  So  Michaelis,  D^^  "lijl?  for  DniJ?5 

•  Gen.  xiv.  5 ;  i  Mace.  v.  In  the  days  of  Eusebius  and  Jerome 
(4th  century)  there  were  two  places  of  the  name  :  one  of  them  doubt- 
less the  present  Tell  Ashtara  south  of  El-Merkez,  the  other  distant 
from  that  fourteen  Roman  miles. 


Amosvi.]      THE  FALSE  PEACE  OF  RITUAL 


often  been  contested  by  Israel  and  Aram,  and  with 
which  no  other  Old  Testament  name  has  been  identi- 
fied.^ These  two  fortresses,  with  many  others,  Israel 
had  lately  taken  from  Aram  ;  but  not,  as  they  boasted, 
by  their  own  strength.  It  was  only  Aram's  pre-occupa- 
tion  with  Assyria  now  surgent  on  the  northern  flank, 
which  allowed  Israel  these  easy  victories.  And  this 
same  northern  foe  would  soon  overwhelm  themselves. 
For,  behold,  I  am  to  raise  up  against  you,  O  house  of 
Israel — V/5  the  oracle  of  Jehovah  God  of  the  hosts  ^ — a 
Nation,  and  they  shall  oppress  you  from  the  Entr^ance  of 
Hamath  to  the  Torrent  of  the  'Arabah.  Every  one  knows 
the  former,  the  Pass  between  the  Lebanons,  at  whose 
mouth  stands  Dan,  northern  limit  of  Israel ;  but  it  is 
hard  to  identify  the  latter.  If  Amos  means  to  in- 
clude Judah,  we  should  have  expected  the  Torrent  of 
Egypt,  the  present  Wady  el  'Arish  ;  but  the  Wady  of 
the  'Arabah  may  be  a  corresponding  valley  in  the 
eastern  watershed  issuing  in  the  *Arabah,  If  Amos 
threatens  only  the  Northern  Kingdom,  he  intends  some 
wady  running  down  to  that  Sea  of  the  'Arabah,  the 
Dead  Sea,  which  is  elsewhere  given  as  the  limit  of 
Israel.' 

*  Along  this  ridge  ran,  and  still  runs,  one  of  the  most  important 
highways  to  the  East,  that  from  Beth-Shan  by  Gadera  to  Edrei. 
About  seven  miles  east  from  Gadera  lies  a  village,  Ibdar,  with  a 
good  spring  and  some  ancient  remains  "  (Schumacher,  N,  Ajlun^  loi). 
Lo-Debar  is  mentioned  in  2  Sam.  ix.  45  ;  xvii.  27 ;  and  doubtless 
the  Lidcbir  of  Josh.  xiii.  26  on  the  north  border  of  Gilead  is  the 
same. 

'  With  the  article,  an  unusual  form  of  the  title.    LXX.  here  KvpLQ% 

T(ji¥  5vifdfl€(jJ¥. 

■  2  Kings  xiv.  25.  The  Torrent  of  the  'Arabah  can  scarcely  be  the 
Torrent  of  the  'Arabim  of  Isa.  xv.  7,  for  the  latter  was  outside  Israel's 
territory,  and  the  border  between  Moab  and  Edom.  The  LXX 
render  Torrent  0/  the  PVest,  tuv  hvaixdv 

VOL.  L  12 


I7S  THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


The  Assyrian  flood,  then,  was  about  to  break,  and 
the  oracles  close  with  the  hopeless  prospect  of  the 
whole  land  submerged  beneath  it. 

4.  A  Fragment  from  the  Plague. 

In  the  above  exposition  we  have  omitted  two  very 
curious  verses,  9  and  10,  which  are  held  by  some 
critics  to  interrupt  the  current  of  the  chapter,  and  to 
reflect  an  entirely  different  kind  of  calamity  from  that 
which  it  predicts.  I  do  not  think  these  critics  right, 
for  reasons  I  am  about  to  give ;  but  the  verses  are  so 
remarkable  that  it  is  most  convenient  to  treat  them 
by  themselves  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  chapter. 
Here  they  are,  with  the  verse  immediately  in  front  of 
them. 

/  am  loathing  the  pride  of  Jacobs  and  his  palaces  I 
hate.  And  I  will  give  up  a  city  and  its  fulness  to  .  .  . 
(perhaps  siege  or  pestilence  ?).  And  it  shall  come  to 
pasSf  if  there  be  left  ten  men  in  one  house^  and  they 
die^.  .  .  that  his  cousin  ^  and  the  man  to  burn  him  shall 
lift  him  to  bring  the  body^  out  of  the  house^  and  they 
shall  say  to  one  who  is  in  the  recesses  of  the  house^ 
Are  there  any  more  with  thee?  And  he  shall  say^  Not 
one  .  .  .  and  they  shall  say,  Hush  !  {for  one  must  not 
make  mention  of  the  name  of  fehovah). 

This  grim  fragment  is  obscure  in  its  relation  to  the 


'  Here  there  is  evidently  a  gap  in  the  text.  The  LXX.  insert 
<aX  {two\€L(f)6Tj<TovTai  oi  /cardXoiTroi ;  perhaps  therefore  the  text  originally 
ran  and  the  survivors  die. 

'  Or  uncle — that  is,  a  distant  relative,  presumably  because  all  the 
near  ones  are  dead. 

*  Literally  bones, 
LXX.  rots  irpoeaTriKbffi :  evidently  in  ignorance  of  the  reading  ci 
the  meaning. 


Amds  vl.  9, 10.]  THt:  FALSE  PEACE  OF  RlTVAL  lyg 


context.  But  the  death  of  even  so  large  a  household 
as  ten — the  funeral  left  to  a  distant  relation — the  dis- 
posal of  the  bodies  by  burning  instead  of  the  burial 
customary  among  the  Hebrews  ^ — sufBciently  reflect  the 
kind  of  calamity.  It  is  a  weird  little  bit  of  memory, 
the  recollection  of  an  eye-witness,  from  one  of  those 
great  pestilences  which,  during  the  first  half  of  the 
eighth  century,  happened  not  seldom  in  Western  Asia.^ 
But  what  does  it  do  here?  Wellhausen  says  that 
there  is  nothing  to  lead  up  to  the  incident ;  that  before 
it  the  chapter  speaks,  not  of  pestilence,  but  only  of 
political  destruction  by  an  enemy.  This  is  not  accurate. 
The  phrase  immediately  preceding  may  mean  either  / 
will  shut  up  a  city  and  its  fulness,  in  which  case  a  siege 
is  meant,  and  a  siege  was  the  possibility  both  of  famine 
and  pestilence ;  or  /  will  give  up  the  city  and  its  fulness 
.  .  .  ,  in  which  case  a  word  or  two  may  have  been 
dropped,  as  words  have  undoubtedly  been  dropped  at 
the  end  of  the  next  verse,  and  one  ought  perhaps  to 
add  to  the  pestilence?  The  latter  alternative  is  the 
more  probable,  and  this  may  be  one  of  the  passages, 
already  alluded  to,*  in  which  the  want  of  connection 
with  the  preceding  verses  is  to  be  explained,  not  upon 
the  favourite  theory  that  there  has  been  a  violent 


'  The  burning  of  a  body  was  regarded,  as  we  have  seen  (Amos  ii.  i), 
AS  a  great  sacrilege ;  and  was  practised,  outside  times  of  pestilence 
only  in  cases  of  great  criminals  :  Lev.  xx.  14  ;  xxi.  9;  Josh.  vii.  25. 
Doughty  (^Arabia  Deserta,  68)  mentions  a  case  in  which,  in  Medina,  a 
Persian  pilgrim  was  burned  to  death  by  an  angry  crowd  for  defiling 
Mohammed's  tomb. 

*  The  Assyrian  inscriptions  record  at  least  three — in  803,  765,  759. 

■  As  in  Psalm  Ixxviii.  50.  I^^DH^  to  give  up,  is  so  seldom  used 
absolutely  (Deut.  xxxii.  30  is  poetry  and  elliptic)  that  we  may  well 
believe  it  was  followed  by  words  signifying  to  what  the  city  was  to 
be  given  up.  *  Pp.  141  f. 


i8o 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


intrusion  into  the  text,  but  upon  the  too  much  neglected 
hypothesis  that  some  words  have  been  lost. 

The  uncertainty  of  the  text,  however,  does  not 
weaken  the  impression  of  its  ghastly  realism :  the 
unclean  and  haunted  house ;  the  kinsman  and  the 
body-burner  afraid  to  search  through  the  infected 
rooms,  and  calling  in  muffled  voice  to  the  single 
survivor  crouching  in  some  far  corner  of  them,  Are 
there  any  more  with  thee?  his  reply,  None — himself 
the  next  I  Yet  these  details  are  not  the  most  weird. 
Over  all  hangs  a  terror  darker  than  the  pestilence. 
Shall  there  be  evil  in  a  city  and  Jehovah  not  have  done  it  ? 
Such,  as  we  have  heard  from  Amos,  was  the  settled 
faith  of  the  age.  But  in  times  of  woe  it  was  held  with 
an  awful  and  a  craven  superstition.  The  whole  of  life 
was  believed  to  be  overhung  with  loose  accumulations 
of  Divine  anger.  And  as  in  some  fatal  hollow  in  the 
high  Alps,  where  any  noise  may  bring  down  the 
impending  masses  of  snow,  and  the  fearful  traveller 
hurries  along  in  silence,  so  the  men  of  that  superstitious 
age  feared,  when  an  evil  like  the  plague  was  imminent, 
even  to  utter  the  Deity's  name,  lest  it  should  loosen 
som.e  avalanche  of  His  wrath.  And  he  saidy  Hush!  for^ 
adds  the  comment,  one  must  not  make  mention  of  the 
name  of  Jehovah, 

This  reveals  another  side  of  the  popular  religion 
which  Amos  has  been  attacking.  We  have  seen  it 
as  the  sheer  superstition  of  routine ;  but  we  now 
know  that  it  was  a  routine  broken  by  panic.  The 
God  who  in  times  of  peace  was  propitiated  by  regular 
supplies  of  savoury  sacrifice  and  flattery,  is  conceived, 
when  His  wrath  is  roused  and  imminent,  as  kept 
quiet  only  by  the  silence  of  its  miserable  objects. 
The  false  peace  of  ritual  is  tempered  by  panic. 


CHAPTER  X 

DOOM  OR  DISCIPLINE  f 
Amos  viii.  4 — ix. 

WE  now  enter  the  Third  Section  of  the  Book  of 
Amos :  chaps,  vii. — ix.  As  we  have  already 
treated  the  first  part  of  it — the  group  of  four  visions, 
which  probably  formed  the  prophet's  discourse  at 
Bethel,  with  the  interlude  of  his  adventure  there 
(vii. — viii.  3)  ^ — we  may  pass  at  once  to  what  remains  : 
from  viii.  4  to  the  end  of  the  book.  This  portion 
consists  of  groups  of  oracles  more  obscure  in  their 
relations  to  each  other  than  any  we  have  yet  studied, 
and  probably  containing  a  number  of  verses  which  are 
not  from  Amos  himself.  They  open  in  a  denunciation 
of  the  rich,  which  echoes  previous  oracles,  and  soon 
pass  to  judgments  of  a  kind  already  threatened,  but 
now  with  greater  relentlessness.  Then,  just  as  all  is 
at  the  darkest,  lights  break ;  exceptions  are  made ; 
the  inevitable  captivity  is  described  no  more  as  doom, 
but  as  discipline ;  and,  with  only  this  preparation  for 
a  change,  we  are  swept  out  on  a  scene,  in  which, 
although  the  land  is  strewn  with  the  ruins  that  have 
been  threatened,  the  sunshine  of  a  new  day  floods 
them ;  the  promise  of  restoration  is  given ;  Nature 


*  See  Chapter  VI.,  Section  3, 
181 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


herself  will  be  regenerated,  and  the  whole  life  of  Israel 
planted  on  its  own  ground  again. 

Whether  it  was  given  to  Amos  himself  to  behold 
this  day — whether  these  last  verses  of  the  book  were 
his  Nunc  Dimittis,"  or  the  hope  of  a  later  generation, 
which  found  his  book  intolerably  severe,  and  mingled 
with  its  judgments  their  own  new  mercies — we  shall 
try  to  discover  further  on.  Meanwhile  there  is  no 
doubt  that  we  start  with  the  authentic  oracles  of  the 
prophet.  We  know  the  ring  of  his  voice.  To  the 
tyranny  of  the  rich,  which  he  has  so  often  lashed,  he 
now  adds  the  greed  and  fraud  of  the  traders ;  and  he 
paints  Israel's  doom  in  those  shapes  of  earthquake, 
eclipse  and  famine  with  which  his  own  generation 
had  recently  become  familiar.  Note  that  in  this  first 
group  Amos  employs  only  physical  calamities,  and 
says  nothing  of  war  and  captivity.  If  the  standard 
which  we  have  already  applied  to  the  growth  of  his 
doctrine  be  correct,  these  ought  therefore  to  be  counted 
among  his  earlier  utterances.  War  and  captivity  follow 
in  chap.  ix.  That  is  to  say,  this  Third  Section  follows 
the  same  line  of  development  as  both  the  First  and 
the  Second. 

I.  Earthquake,  Eclipse  and  Famine. 

Amos  viii.  4-14. 

Hear  this,  ye  who  trample  the  needy,  and  would  put 
an  end  to  ^  the  lowly  of  the  land,  saying,  When  will 
the  NeW'Moon  be  over,  that  we  may  sell  grain,  and  the 
Sabbath,  that  we  may  open  corn  {by  making  small  the 
measure,  but  large  the  weight,  and  falsifying  the  frau- 
dulent balances ;  buying  the  wretched  for  silver,  and  the 


'  The  phrase  is  uncertain. 


Amos  viii.  4-14-]     DOOM  OR  DISCIPLINE  f 


i«3 


needy  for  a  pair  of  shoes  /),  and  that  we  may  sell  as  grain 
the  refuse  of  the  corn  I  The  parenthesis  puzzles,  but  is 
not  impossible :  in  the  speed  of  his  scorn,  Amos  might 
well  interrupt  the  speech  of  the  merchants  by  these 
details  of  their  fraud/  flinging  these  in  their  teeth 
as  they  spoke.  The  existence  at  this  date  of  the 
New-Moon  and  Sabbath  as  days  of  rest  from  business 
is  interesting;  but  even  more  interesting  is  the  peril 
to  which  they  lie  open.  As  in  the  case  of  the  Nazirites 
and  the  prophets,  we  see  how  the  religious  institutions 
and  opportunities  of  the  people  are  threatened  by 
worldliness  and  greed.  And,  as  in  every  other  relevant 
passage  of  the  Old  Testament,  we  have  the  interests 
of  the  Sabbath  bound  up  in  the  same  cause  with  the 
interests  of  the  poor.  The  Fourth  Commandment 
enforces  the  day  of  rest  on  behalf  of  the  servants  and 
bondsmen.  When  a  later  prophet  substitutes  for 
religious  fasts  the  ideals  of  social  service,  he  weds 
with  the  latter  the  security  of  the  Sabbath  from  all 
business.^  So  here  Amos  emphasises  that  the  Sabbath 
is  threatened  by  the  same  worldliness  and  love  of 
money  which  tramples  on  the  helpless.  The  interests 
of  the  Sabbath  are  the  interests  of  the  poor :  the 
enemies  of  the  Sabbath  are  the  enemies  of  the  poor. 
And  all  this  illustrates  our  Saviour's  saying,  that  the 
Sabbath  was  made  for  man, 

'  Wellhausen  thinks  that  the  prophet  could  not  have  put  the 
parenthesis  in  the  mouth  of  the  traders,  and  therefore  regards  it  as 
an  intrusion  or  gloss.  I>ut  this  is  hypercriticism.  The  last  clause, 
however,  may  be  a  mere  clerical  repetition  of  ii.  6. 

'  Isa.  Iviii.  See  the  exposition  of  the  passage  in  the  writer't 
Isaiah  xl. — Ixvi.  (Expositor's  Bible  Series),  pp.  417  ff. :  "Our  prophet, 
while  exalting  the  practical  service  of  man  at  the  expense  of  certain 
religious  forms,  equally  exalts  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath ;  ...  he 
places  the  keeping  of  th(  Sabbath  on  a  level  with  the  practice  oflovc." 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


But,  as  in  the  rest  of  the  book,  judgment  again 
follows  hard  on  sin.  Sworn  hath  Jehovah  by  the  pride 
of Jacoby  Never  shall  I  forget  their  deeds.  It  is  as  before. 
The  chief  spring  of  the  prophet's  inspiration  is  his 
burning  sense  of  the  personal  indignation  of  God 
against  crimes  so  abominable.  God  is  the  God  of 
the  poor,  and  His  anger  rises,  as  we  see  the  anger 
of  Christ  arise,  heavy  against  their  tyrants  and  oppres- 
sors. Such  sins  are  intolerable  to  Him.  But  the 
feeling  of  their  intolerableness  is  shared  by  the  land 
itself,  the  very  fabric  of  nature ;  the  earthquake  is  the 
proof  of  it.  For  all  this  shall  not  the  land  tremble  and 
her  every  inhabitant  mourn  ?  and  she  shall  rise  like  the 
Nile  in  mass,  and  heave  and  sink  like  the  Nile  of  Egypt} 

To  the  earthquake  is  added  the  eclipse :  one  had 
•  happened  in  803,  and  another  in  763,  the  memory  of 
which  probably  inspired  the  form  of  this  passage.  And 
it  shall  be  in  that  day — 7/5  the  oracle  of  the  Lord  Jehovah 
— that  I  shall  bring  down  the  sun  at  noon^  and  cast  dark- 
ness on  the  earth  in  broad  day?  And  I  will  turn  your 
festivals  into  momning^  and  all  your  songs  to  a  dirge. 
And  I  will  bring  up  upon  all  loins  sackcloth  and  on 
every  head  baldness^  and  I  will  make  it  like  the  mourning 
for  an  only  son,  and  the  end  of  it  as  a  bitter  day. 

But  the  terrors  of  earthquake  and  eclipse  are  not 
sufficient  for  doom,  and  famine  is  drawn  upon. 

Loj  days  are  coming — Uis  the  oracle  of  the  Lord 
Jehovah — that  I  will  send  famine  on  the  land,  not  a 
famine  of  bread  nor  a  drouth  of  water ,  but  of  hearing 
the  words  of  Jehovah.    And  they  shall  zvander  from  sea 

*  She  shall  rise y  etc. — The  clause  is  almost  the  same  as  in  ix.  and 
the  text  differs  from  the  LXX.,  which  omits  and  heave.  Is  it  aa 
insertion  ? 

*  Literally  in  the  day  of  light. 


Amos viii. 4-14]      DOOM  OR  DISCIPLINE? 


to  sea,  and  from  the  dark  North  to  the  Sunrise  shall  they 
run  to  and  fro,  to  seek  the  word  of Jehovah^  and  they  shall 
not  find  it;  .  .  .  who  swear  by  Samaria^ s  Guilt — the 
golden  calf  in  the  house  of  the  kingdom  at  Bethel  ^  — and 
say,  As  liveth  thy  God,  O  Dan  !  and,  As  liveth  the  way 
to  Beersheba  I  and  they  shall  fall  and  not  rise  any  more. 
I  have  omitted  ver.  13  :  in  that  day  shall  the  fair  maids 
faint  and  the  youths  for  thirst ;  and  I  append  my  reasons 
in  a  note.  Some  part  of  the  received  text  must  go,  for 
while  vv.  II  and  12  speak  of  a  spiritual  drought,  the 
drought  of  13  is  physical.  And  ver.  14  follows  12 
better  than  it  follows  13.  The  oaths  mentioned  by 
Bethel,  Dan,  Beersheba,  are  not  specially  those  of  young 
men  and  maidens,  but  of  the  whole  nation,  that  run 
from  one  end  of  the  land  to  the  other,  Dan  to  Beer- 
sheba, seeking  for  some  word  of  Jehovah.^  One  of  the 
oaths.  As  liveth  the  way  to  Beersheba,^  is  so  curious  that 


'  That  is,  Samaria  is  used  in  the  wider  sense  of  the  kingdom,  not 
the  capital,  and  there  is  no  need  for  Wellhausen's  substitution  of 
Bethel  for  it. 

*  This  in  answer  to  Gunning  (^De  Godspraken  van  Amos,  1885), 
Wellh.  in  loco,  and  KOnig  {Einlet'timg,  p.  304,  d),  who  reckon  vv.  1 1 
and  12  to  be  the  insertion  ;  the  latter  on  the  additional  ground  that 
the  formula  of  ver.  13,  tn  that  day,  points  back  to  ver.  9;  but  not  to  the 
Lo,  days  are  coming  of  ver.  II.  But  thus  to  miss  out  vv.  11  and  12 
leaves  us  with  greater  difficulties  than  before.  For  without  them 
Low  are  we  to  explain  the  thirst  of  ver.  13.  It  is  left  unintroduced  ; 
there  is  no  hint  of  a  drought  in  9  and  lO.  It  seems  to  me  then  that, 
since  we  must  omit  some  verse,  it  ought  to  be  ver.  13;  and  this  the 
rather  that  if  omitted  it  is  not  missed.  It  is  just  the  kind  of  general 
statement  that  would  be  added  by  an  unthinking  scribe;  and  it  does 
not  readily  connect  with  ver.  14,  while  ver.  12  does  do  so.  For  why 
should  youths  and  maids  be  specially  singled  out  as  swearing  by 
Samaria,  Dan  and  Beersheba  ?  These  were  the  oalhs  of  the  whole 
people,  to  whom  vv.  1 1  and  12  refer.  I  see  a  very  clear  case,  therefore, 
for  omitting  ver.  13. 

•  LXX.  here  gives  a  mere  repetition  of  the  preceding  oath. 


i86 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


some  have  doubted  if  the  text  be  correct.  But  strange 
as  it  may  appear  to  us  to  speak  of  the  life  of  the  Hfeless, 
this  often  happens  among  the  Semites.  To-day  Arabs 
"swear  wa  hydl,  'by  the  life  of/  even  of  things 
inanimate  ;  '  By  the  life  of  this  fire,  or  of  this  coffee.'  "  * 
And  as  Amos  here  tells  us  that  the  Israelite  pilgrims 
swore  by  the  way  to  Beersheba,  so  do  the  Moslems 
affirm  their  oaths  by  the  sacred  way  to  Mecca. 

Thus  Amos  returns  to  the  chief  target  of  his  shafts — 
the  senseless,  corrupt  worship  of  the  national  sanc- 
tuaries. And  this  time — perhaps  in  remembrance  of 
how  they  had  silenced  the  word  of  God  when  he  brought 
it  home  to  them  at  Bethel — he  tells  Israel  that,  with  all 
their  running  to  and  fro  across  the  land,  to  shrine  after 
shrine  in  search  of  the  word,  they  shall  suffer  from 
a  famine  and  drouth  of  it.  Perhaps  this  is  the  most 
effective  contrast  in  which  Amos  has  yet  placed  the 
stupid  ritualism  of  his  people.  With  so  many  things 
to  swear  by  ;  with  so  many  holy  places  that  once  were 
the  homes  of  Vision,  Abraham's  Beersheba,  Jacob's 
Bethel,  Joshua's  Gilgal — nay,  a  whole  land  over  which 
God's  voice  had  broken  in  past  ages,  lavish  as  the  rain ; 
with,  too,  all  their  assiduity  of  sacrifice  and  prayer,  they 
should  nevertheless  starve  and  pant  for  that  living 
word  of  the  Lord,  which  they  had  silenced  in  His 
prophet. 

Thus,  men  may  be  devoted  to  religion,  may  be 
loyal  to  their  sacred  traditions  and  institutions,  may 
haunt  the  holy  associations  of  the  past  and  be  very 
assiduous  w^ith  their  ritual^ — and  yet,  because  of  their 
worldliness,  pride  and  disobedience,  never  feel  that 
moral  inspiration,  that  clear  call  to  duty,  that  comfort 


^  Doughty :  Arabia  Desertm  I.  269. 


Amosix.  I -6.]       DOOM  OR  DISCIPLINE  f 


187 


in  pain,  that  hope  in  adversity,  that  good  conscience 
at  all  times,  which  spring  up  in  the  heart  Uke  living 
water.  Where  these  be  not  experienced,  orthodoxy, 
zeal,  lavish  ritual,  are  all  in  vain. 

2.  Nemesis. 

Amos  ix.  1-6. 

There  follows  a  Vision  in  Bethel,  the  opening  of 
which,  /  saw  the  Lordy  immediately  recalls  the  great 
inauguration  of  Isaiah.  He  also  saw  the  Lord)  but 
how  different  the  Attitude,  how  other  the  Word  I  To 
the  statesman-prophet  the  Lord  is  enthroned^  surrounded 
by  the  court  of  heaven ;  and  though  the  temple  rocks 
to  the  intolerable  thunder  of  their  praise,  they  bring 
to  the  contrite  man  beneath  the  consciousness  of  a 
life-long  mission.  But  to  Amos  the  Lord  is  standing 
and  alone — to  this  lonely  prophet  God  is  always  alone 
— and  His  message  may  be  summed  up  in  its  initial 
word.  Smite,  There — Government :  hierarchies  of 
service,  embassies,  clemencies,  healings,  and  though 
at  first  devastation,  thereafter  the  indestructible  hope 
of  a  future.  Here — Judgment :  that  Figure  of  Fate 
which  terror's  fascinated  eye  ever  sees  alone ;  one  final 
blow  and  irreparable  ruin.  And  so,  as  with  Isaiah  we 
saw  how  constructive  prophecy  may  be,  with  Amos 
we  behold  only  the  preparatory  havoc,  the  levelling 
and  clearing  of  the  ground  of  the  future. 

/  have  seen  the  Lord  standing  over  the  Altar ,  and 
He  saidy  Smite  the  capital — of  the  pillar — that  the  very 
thresholds  ^  quake^  and  break  them  on  the  head  of  all 
of  them  I    It  is  a  shock  that  makes  the  temple  reel 


'  Since  it  is  the  capital  that  has  been  struck,  and  the  command  if 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


from  roof-tree  to  basement.  The  vision  seems  sub- 
sequent to  the  prophet's  visit  to  Bethel ;  and  it  gathers 
his  whole  attack  on  the  national  worship  into  one 
decisive  and  irreparable  blow.  The  last  of  them  will 
I  slay  with  the  sword:  there  shall  not  flee  away  of  them 
one  fugitive:  there  shall  not  escape  of  them  a  single 
survivor !  Neither  hell  nor  heaven,  mountain-top  nor 
sea-bottom,  shall  harbour  one  of  them.  If  they  break 
through  to  Shcoly  thence  shall  My  hand  take  ihem;  and 
if  they  climb  to  heaven^  thence  shall  I  bring  them  down, 
IJ  they  hide  in  Carmel^s  topy  thence  will  I  find  them  ouf 
and  fetch  them;  and  if  they  conceal  themselves  from 
before  Mine  eyes  in  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  thence  shall  I 
charge  the  Serpent  and  he  shall  bite  them;  and  if  they  go 
into  captivity  before  their  foes — to  Israel  as  terrible  a 
distance  from  God's  face  as  Sheol  itself! — thence  will 
I  charge  the  sword  and  it  shall  slay  them;  and  I  will  set 
Mine  eye  upon  them  for  evil  and  not  for  good. 

It  is  a  ruder  draft  of  the  Hundred  and  Thirty-Ninth 
Psalm;  but  the  Divine  Pursuer  is  Nemesis,  and  not 
Conscience. 

And  the  Lord,  Jehovah  of  the  Hosts;  Who  louche th 
the  earth  and  it  melteth,  and  all  its  inhabitants  mourn, 
and  it  rises  like  the  Nile,  all  of  it  together,  and  sinks 
like  the  Nile  of  Egvpt;  Who  buildeth  His  stories  in  the 
heavens,  and  His  vault  on  the  earth  He  foundeth;  Who 
calleth  to  the  waters  of  the  sea  and  poureth  them  forth  on 
the  face  of  the  earth — Jehovah  of  Hosts  is  His  Name} 


given  to  break  the  thresholds  on  the  head  of  all  of  them^  many  translate 
lintels  or  architraves  instead  of  thresholds  {e.g.  Hitzig,  and  Guthe  in 
Kautzsch's  Bibel).  But  the  word  D''pp  always  means  thresholds 
and  the  blow  here  is  fundamental, 

*  LXX.  adds  of  Hosts:  on  the  whole  passage  see  next  chapter. 


Amosix.  7-I5-]       DOOM  OR  DISCIPLINE? 


3.  The  Voices  of  Another  Dawn. 

Amos  ix.  7-15. 

And  now  we  are  come  to  the  part  where,  as  it  seems, 
voices  of  another  day  mingle  with  that  of  Amos,  and 
silence  his  judgments  in  the  chorus  of  their  unbroken 
hope.  At  first,  however,  it  is  himself  without  doubt 
who  speaks.  He  takes  up  the  now  familiar  truth, 
that  when  it  comes  to  judgment  for  sin,  Israel  is  no 
dearer  to  Jehovah  than  any  other  people  of  His  equal 
Providence. 

Are  ye  not  unto  Me,  O  children  of  Israel — V/s  the  oracle 
of  Jehovah — just  like  the  children  of  Kushites?  mere 
black  folk  and  far  away  I  Did  I  not  bring  up  Israel 
from  Egyptf  and  the  Philistines  from  Caphtor,  and  Aram 
from  Kir?  Mark  again  the  universal  Providence  which 
Amos  proclaims :  it  is  the  due  concomitant  of  his 
universal  morality.  Once  for  all  the  religion  of  Israel 
breaks  from  the  characteristic  Semitic  belief  that  gave 
a  god  to  every  people,  and  limited  both  his  power  and 
his  interests  to  that  people's  territory  and  fortunes. 
And  if  we  remember  how  everything  spiritual  in  the 
religion  of  Israel,  everything  in  its  significance  for 
mankind,  was  rendered  possible  only  because  at  this 
date  it  broke  from  and  abjured  the  particularism  in 
which  it  had  been  born,  we  shall  feel  some  of  the 
Titanic  force  of  the  prophet,  in  whom  that  break  was 
achieved  with  an  absoluteness  which  leaves  nothing  to 
be  desired.  But  let  us  also  emphasise,  that  it  was 
by  no  mere  method  of  the  intellect  or  observation  of 
history  that  Amos  was  led  to  assert  the  unity  of  the 
Divine  Providence.  The  inspiration  in  this  was  a 
Sjoral  one :  Jehovah  was  ruler  and  guide  of  all  the 


190 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


families  of  mankind,  because  He  was  exalted  in  right- 
eousness ;  and  the  field  in  which  that  righteousness  was 
proved  and  made  manifest  was  the  life  and  the  fate  of 
Israel.  Therefore  to  this  Amos  now  turns.  Zo,  the 
eyes  of  the  Lord  Jehovah  are  on  the  sinful  kingdom^  and 
I  will  destroy  it  from  the  face  of  the  ground.  In  other 
words,  Jehovah's  sovereignty  over  the  world  was  not 
proved  by  Israel's  conquest  of  the  latter,  but  by  His 
unflinching  application  of  the  principles  of  righteousness, 
at  whatever  cost,  to  Israel  herselt. 

Up  to  this  point,  then,  the  voice  of  Amos  is  unmis- 
takable, uttering  the  doctrine,  so  original  to  him,  that 
in  the  judgment  of  God  Israel  shall  not  be  specially 
favoured,  and  the  sentence,  we  have  heard  so  often 
from  him,  of  her  removal  from  her  land.  Remember, 
Amos  has  not  yet  said  a  word  in  mitigation  of  the 
sentence:  up  to  this  point  of  his  book  it  has  been 
presented  as  inexorable  and  final.  But  now  to  a  state- 
ment ot  it  as  absolute  as  any  that  has  gone  before, 
there  is  suddenly  added  a  qualification :  nevertheless  1 
will  not  utterly  destroy  the  house  of  Jacob — His  the  oracle 
of  Jehovah.  And  then  there  is  added  a  new  picture 
of  exile  changed  from  doom  to  discipline,  a  process  of 
sifting  by  which  only  the  evil  in  Israel,  all  the  sinners 
of  My  people,  shall  perish,  but  not  a  grain  of  the  good. 
For  J  loy  I  am  giving  command,  and  I  mil  toss  the  house 
of  Israel  among  all  the  nations,  like  something  that  is 
tossed  in  a  sieve,  but  not  a  pebble  ^  shall  fall  to  earth.  By 
the  sword  shall  die  all  the  sinners  of  My  people,  they  who 
say.  The  calamity  shall  not  reach  nor  anticipate  us,^ 

*  Wc  should  have  expected  a  grain^  but  the  word  "ITIV  only  means 
»mall  stone:  cf.  2  Sam.  xvii.  13.  The  LXX.  has  here  tr^vrpififiM, 
fracture,  ruin.    Ct  Z.A.TIV.,  III.  125. 

The  text  has  been  disturbed  here ;  the  verbs  are  in  forms  not 


Amosix.  y-i5.]       DOOM  OR  DISCIPLINE? 


191 


Now  as  to  these  qualifications  of  the  hitherto 
unmitigated  judgments  of  the  book,  it  is  to  be  noted 
that  there  is  nothing  in  their  language  to  lead  us  to 
take  them  from  Amos  himself.  On  the  contrary,  the 
last  clause  describes  what  he  has  always  called  a 
characteristic  sin  of  his  day.  Our  only  difficulties  are 
that  hitherto  Amos  has  never  qualified  his  sentences 
of  doom,  and  that  the  change  now  appears  so 
suddenly  that  the  two  halves  of  the  verse  in  which  it 
does  so  absolutely  contradict  each  other.  Read  them 
again,  ver.  8  :  Lo^  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  Jehovah  are  on 
the  sinful  nation^  and  I  will  destroy  it  from  off  the 
face  of  the  ground — nevertheless  destroying  I  shall  not 
destroy  the  house  of  Jacob:  Uis  the  oracle  of  Jehovah. 
Can  we  believe  the  same  prophet  to  have  uttered  at 
the  same  time  these  two  statements  ?  And  is  it 
possible  to  believe  that  prophet  to  be  the  hitherto 
unwavering,  unqualifying  Amos  ?  Noting  these  things, 
let  us  pass  to  the  rest  of  the  chapter.  We  break  from 
all  shadows ;  the  verses  are  verses  of  pure  hope.  The 
judgment  on  Israel  is  not  averted  ;  but  having  taken 
place  her  ruin  is  regarded  as  not  irreparable. 

In  that  day — the  day  Amos  has  threatened  of  overthrow 
and  ruin — /  will  raise  again  the  fallen  hut  of  David  and 
will  close  up  its  breaches^  and  his  ruins  I  will  raise,  and 
I  will  build  it  up  as  in  the  days  of  old^  that  they  may 
possess  the  remnant  of  Edom  and  all  the  nations  upon 

possible  to  the  sense.    For  ^"^ITS  read  either  i^bjjl  with  Hitzig  or 
with  Wellhausen.    C^pri,  Hiph.,  is  not  impossible  in  an  in- 
transitive sense,  but  probably  Wellhausen  is  right  in  reading  Pi, 
The  reading  which  the  Greek  suggests  and  Hoflfmann 

and  Wellhausen  adopt  is  not  so  appropriate  to  the  preceding  verb 
as  lOnyn  of  the  text. 

'  The  text  reads  their  breaches,  and  some  accordingly  point  HS^/if/^ 


192 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


whom  My  Name  has  been  called — that  is,  as  once  their 
Possessor — Uis  the  oracle  of  Jehovah^  He  who  is  about 
to  do  this. 

The  fallen  hut  of  David  undoubtedly  means  the  fall 
of  the  kingdom  of  Judah.  It  is  not  language  Amos 
uses,  or,  as  it  seems  to  me,  could  have  used,  of  the  fall 
of  the  Northern  Kingdom  only.^  Again,  it  is  undoubted 
that  Amos  contemplated  the  fall  of  Judah :  this  is 
implicit  in  such  a  phrase  as  the  whole  family  that  1 
brought  up  from  Egypt?  He  saw  then  the  day  and  the 
ruins  of  which  ver.  1 1  speaks.  The  only  question  is, 
can  we  attribute  to  him  the  prediction  of  a  restoration 
of  these  ruins  ?  And  this  is  a  question  which  must 
be  answered  in  face  of  the  facts  that  the  rest  of  his 
book  is  unrelieved  by  a  single  gleam  of  hope,  and  that 
his  threat  of  the  nation's  destruction  is  absolute  and 
final.  Now  it  is  significant  that  in  face  of  those  facts 
Cornill  (though  he  has  changed  his  opinion)  once  believed 
it  was  surely  possible  for  Amos  to  include  restoration 
in  his  prospect  of  ruin,"  as  (he  might  have  added)  other 
prophets  undoubtedly  do.  I  confess  I  cannot  so  readily 
get  over  the  rest  of  the  book  and  its  gloom ;  and  am 
the  less  inclined  to  be  sure  about  these  verses  being 
Amos'  own  that  it  seems  to  have  been  not  unusual  for 
later  generations,  for  whom  the  daystar  was  beginning  to 
rise,  to  add  their  own  inspired  hopes  to  the  unrelieved 
threats  of  their  predecessors  of  the  midnight.  The 
mention  of  Edom  does  not  help  us  much :  in  the 
days  of  Amos  after  the  partial  conquest  by  Uzziah 


as  if  it  were  the  plural  huts  (Hoffmann,  Z.A,T.IV.,  1883,  125 ;  Schwally, 
id.f  1890,  226,  n.  I  ;  Guthe  in  Kautzsch's  Bibel),  The  LXX.  has  the 
sing.,  and  it  is  easy  to  see  how  the  plur.  fern,  suffix  may  have  risen 
from  confusion  with  the  following  conjunction, 

*  This  against  Cornill,  Einleitung^  176.  '  iii.  l« 


Amos ix. 7-15]       DOOM  OR  DISCIPLINE? 


the  promise  of  the  rest  of  Edom  was  singularly 
appropriate.  On  the  other  hand,  what  interest  had  so 
purely  ethical  a  prophet  in  the  mere  addition  of  territory  ? 
To  this  point  we  shall  have  to  return  for  our  final 
decision.  We  have  still  the  closing  oracle — a  very 
pleasant  piece  of  music,  as  if  the  birds  had  come  out 
after  the  thunderstorm,  and  the  wet  hills  were  glistening 
in  the  sunshine. 

Zo,  days  are  coming — His  the  oracle  of  Jehovah — when 
the  ploughman  shall  catch  up  the  reaper^  and  the  grape- 
treader  him  that  streweth  the  seed.  The  seasons  shall 
jostle  each  other,  harvest  following  hard  upon  seed- 
time, vintage  upon  spring.  It  is  that  happy 
contention  of  seasons"  which  Josephus  describes  as 
the  perpetual  blessing  of  Galilee.^  And  the  mountains 
shall  drip  with  new  wine^  and  all  the  hills  shall  flow  down. 
And  I  will  bring  back  the  captivity  of  My  people  Israel^ 
and  they  shall  build  the  waste  cities  and  dwell  in  them, 
and  plant  vineyards  and  drink  the  wine  thereof  and  make 
gardens  and  eat  their  fruits.  And  I  will  plant  them  on 
their  own  ground;  and  they  shall  not  be  uprooted  any 
more  from  their  own  ground  which  I  have  given  to  them^ 
saith  Jehovah  thy  God}  Again  we  meet  the  difficulty : 
does  the  voice  that  speaks  here  speak  with  captivity 
already  realised  ?  or  is  it  the  voice  of  one  who  projects 
himself  forward  to  a  day,  which,  by  the  oath  of  the 
Lord  Himself,  is  certain  to  come  ? 

We  have  now  surveyed  the  whole  of  this  much- 


*  III.  WarSf  X.  8.  With  the  above  verses  of  the  Book  of  Amos 
Lev.  xxvi.  5  has  been  compared  :  "your  threshing  shall  reach  to  the 
vintage  and  the  vintage  to  the  sowing  time."  But  there  is  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  either  of  two  so  natural  passages  depends  on  the 
other.  «  LXX.  God  of  Hosts. 

VOL.  L  13 


^94 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


doubted,  much-defended  passage.  I  have  stated  fully 
the  arguments  on  both  sides.  On  the  one  hand,  we 
have  the  fact  that  nothing  in  the  language  of  the  verses, 
and  nothing  in  their  historical  allusions,  precludes 
their  being  by  Amos;  we  have  also  to  admit  that, 
having  threatened  a  day  of  ruin,  it  was  possible  for 
Amos  to  realise  by  his  mind's  eye  its  arrival,  and 
standing  at  that  point  to  see  the  sunshine  flooding  the 
ruins  and  to  prophesy  a  restoration.  In  all  this  there 
is  nothing  impossible  in  itself  or  inconsistent  with  the 
rest  of  the  book.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have  the 
impressive  and  incommensurable  facts :  first,  that  this 
change  to  hope  comes  suddenly,  without  preparation  and 
without  statement  of  reasons,  at  the  very  end  of  a  book 
whose  characteristics  are  not  only  a  final  and  absolute 
sentence  of  ruin  upon  the  people,  and  an  outlook  of 
unrelieved  darkness,  but  scornful  discouragement  of 
every  popular  vision  of  a  prosperous  future  ;  and,  second, 
that  the  prophetic  books  contain  numerous  signs  that 
later  generations  wove  their  own  brighter  hopes  into 
the  abrupt  and  hopeless  conclusions  of  prophecies  of 
judgment. 

To  this  balance  of  evidence  is  there  anything  to 
add  ?  I  think  there  is ;  and  that  it  decides  the  ques- 
tion. All  these  prospects  of  the  future  restoration 
of  Israel  are  absolutely  without  a  moral  feature.  They 
speak  of  return  from  captivity,  of  political  restoration,  of 
supremacy  over  the  Gentiles,  and  of  a  revived  Nature, 
hanging  with  fruit,  dripping  with  must.  Such  hopes 
are  natural  and  legitimate  to  a  people  who  were  long 
separated  from  their  devastated  and  neglected  land, 
and  whose  punishment  and  penitence  were  accomplished. 
But  they  are  not  natural  to  a  prophet  like  Amos. 
Imagine  him  predicting  a  future  like  this  I  Imagine 


Amos ix. 7-15.]      DOOM  OR  DISCIPLINE? 


195 


him  describing  the  consummation  of  his  people's  history, 
without  mentioning  one  of  those  moral  triumphs  to 
rally  his  people  to  which  his  whole  passion  and  energy 
had  been  devoted.  To  me  it  is  impossible  to  hear  the 
voice  that  cried,  Let  justice  roll  on  like  waters  and 
righteousness  like  a  perennial  streamy  in  a  peroration  which 
is  content  to  tell  of  mountains  dripping  with  must  and 
of  a  people  satisfied  with  vineyards  and  gardens.  These 
are  legitimate  hopes ;  but  they  are  the  hopes  of  a 
generation  of  other  conditions  and  of  other  deserts 
than  the  generation  of  Amos. 

If  then  the  gloom  of  this  great  book  is  turned  into 
light,  such  a  change  is  not  due  to  Amos. 


CHAPTER  XI 


COMMON-SENSE  AND  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW 
Amos  iii.  3-8;  iv.  6-13  ;  v.  8,  9;  vi.  12 ;  viii.  8 ;  ix.  5,  6. 
OOLS,  when  they  face  facts,  which  is  seldom, 


X  face  them  one  by  one,  and,  as  a  consequence, 
either  in  ignorant  contempt  or  in  panic.  With  this 
inordinate  folly  Amos  charged  the  religion  of  his  day. 
The  superstitious  people,  careful  of  every  point  of 
ritual  and  very  greedy  of  omens,  would  not  ponder 
real  facts  nor  set  cause  to  effect.  Amos  recalled  them 
to  common  life.  Does  a  bird  fall  upon  a  snare^  except 
there  be  a  loop  on  her  ?  Does  the  trap^  itself  rise  from 
the  groundy  except  it  be  catching  something — something 
alive  in  it  that  struggles,  and  so  lifts  the  trap  ?  Shall 
the  alarum  be  blown  in  a  city,  and  the  people  not  tremble  ? 
Daily  Hfe  is  impossible  without  putting  two  and  two 
together.  But  this  is  just  what  Israel  will  not  do  with 
the  sacred  events  of  their  time.  To  religion  they  will 
not  add  common-sense. 

For  Amos  himself,  all  things  which  happen  are  in 
sequence  and  in  sympathy.  He  has  seen  this  in  the  ^ 
simple  life  of  the  desert ;  he  is  sure  of  it  throughout 
the  tangle  and  hubbub  of  history.  One  thing  explains 
another  ;  one  makes  another  inevitable.  When  he  has 
illustrated  the  truth  in  common  life,  Amos  claims  it  for 
especially  four  of  the  great  facts  of  the  time.  The  sins 
of  society,  of  which  society  is  careless ;  the  physical 


196 


Amos.]  COMMON-SENSE  AND  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW  197 


calamities,  which  they  survive  and  forget ;  the  ap- 
proach of  Assyria,  which  they  ignore ;  the  word  of 
the  prophet,  which  they  silence, — all  these  belong  to 
each  other.  Drought,  Pestilence,  Earthquake,  Invasion 
conspire — and  the  Prophet  holds  their  secret. 

Now  it  is  true  that  for  the  most  part  Amos  describes 
this  sequence  of  events  as  the  personal  action  of  Jehovah, 
Shall  evil  be/ally  and  Jehovah  not  have  done  it?  .  .  .  I 
have  smitten  you.  .  .  .  /  will  raise  up  against  you  a 
Nation,  .  .  .  Prepare  to  meet  thy  Gody  O  Israel  /  ^  Yet 
even  where  the  personal  impulse  of  the  Deity  is  thus 
emphasised,  we  feel  equal  stress  laid  upon  the  order 
and  the  inevitable  certainty  of  the  process.  Amos 
nowhere  uses  Isaiah's  great  phrase  :  a  God  of  Mishpat^ 
a  God  of  Order  or  Law,  But  he  means  almost  the  same 
thing  :  God  works  by  methods  which  irresistibly  fulfil 
themselves.  Nay  more.  Sometimes  this  sequence 
sweeps  upon  the  prophet's  mind  with  such  force  as 
to  overwhelm  all  his  sense  of  the  Personal  within  it. 
The  Will  and  the  Word  of  the  God  who  causes  the 
thing  are  crushed  out  by  the  "  Must  Be  "  of  the  thing 
itself  Take  even  the  descriptions  of  those  historical 
crises,  which  the  prophet  most  explicitly  proclaims  as 
the  visitations  of  the  Almighty.  In  some  of  the  verses 
all  thought  of  God  Himself  is  lost  in  the  roar  and 
foam  with  which  that  tide  of  necessity  bursts  up 
through  them.  The  fountains  of  the  great  deep  break 
loose,  and  while  the  universe  trembles  to  the  shock,  it 
seems  that  even  the  voice  of  the  Deity  is  overwhelmed. 
In  one  passage,  immediately  after  describing  Israel's 
ruin  as  due  to  Jehovah's  word,  Amos  asks  how  could 
it  have  happened  otherwise  : — 


'  iii  66  ;  iv.  9;  vi.  14  ;  iv.  12 5. 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Shall  horses  run  up  a  cliffy  or  oxen  plough  the  sea  ?  that 
ye  turn  justice  into  poison^  and  the  fruit  of  righteousness 
into  wormwood}  A  moral  order  exists,  which  it  is  as 
impossible  to  break  without  disaster  as  it  would  be 
to  break  the  natural  order  by  driving  horses  upon 
a  precipice.  There  is  an  inherent  necessity  in  the 
sinners'  doom.  Again,  he  says  of  Israel's  sin  :  Shall  not 
the  Land  tremble  for  this  ?  Yea^  it  shall  rise  up  together 
like  the  Nile^  and  heave  and  sink  like  the  Nile  of  Egypt} 
The  crimes  of  Israel  are  so  intolerable,  that  in  its  own 
might  the  natural  frame  of  things  revolts  against  them. 
In  these  great  crises,  therefore,  as  in  the  simple  instances 
adduced  from  everyday  life,  Amos  had  a  sense  of  what 
we  call  law,  distinct  from,  and  for  moments  even 
overwhelming,  that  sense  of  the  personal  purpose  of 
God,  admission  to  the  secrets  of  which  had  marked 
his  call  to  be  a  prophet.' 

These  instincts  we  must  not  exaggerate  into  a 
system.  There  is  no  philosophy  in  Amos,  nor  need 
we  wish  there  were.  Far  more  instructive  is  what  we 
do  find — a  virgin  sense  of  the  sympathy  of  all  things, 
the  thrill  rather  than  the  theory  of  a  universe.  And 
this  faith,  which  is  not  a  philosophy,  is  especially 
instructive  on  these  two  points  :  that  it  springs  from 
the  moral  sense ;  and  that  it  embraces,  not  history  only, 
but  nature. 

It  springs  from  the  moral  sense.  Other  races  have 
arrived  at  a  conception  of  the  universe  along  other 
lines  :  some  by  the  observation  of  physical  laws  valid 
to  the  recesses  of  space  ;  some  by  logic  and  the  unity 
of  Reason.    But  Israel  found  the  universe  through  the 


*  vi.  12.  *  viii.  8. 

■  iii.  7  :  Jehovah  God  doeth  nothing,  but  He  hath  revealed  His  secret 
to  His  servants  the  prophets. 


Amos.]  COMMON-SENSE  AND  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW  199 


conscience.  It  is  a  historical  fact  that  the  Unity  of 
God,  the  Unity  of  History  and  the  Unity  of  the  World, 
did,  in  this  order,  break  upon  Israel,  through  conviction 
and  experience  of  the  universal  sovereignty  of  righteous- 
ness. We  see  the  beginnings  of  the  process  in  Amos. 
To  him  the  sequences  which  work  themselves  out 
through  history  and  across  nature  are  moral.  Right- 
eousness is  the  hinge  on  which  the  world  hangs ; 
loosen  it,  and  history  and  nature  feel  the  shock. 
History  punishes  the  sinful  nation.  But  nature,  too, 
groans  beneath  the  guilt  of  man  ;  and  in  the  Drought, 
the  Pestilence  and  the  Earthquake  provides  his 
scourges.  It  is  a  belief  which  has  stamped  itself 
upon  the  language  of  mankind.  What  else  is  plague  " 
than    blow  "  or    scourge  "  ? 

This  brings  us  to  the  second  point — our  prophet's 
treatment  of  Nature. 

Apart  from  the  disputed  passages  (which  we  shall 
take  afterwards  by  themselves)  we  have  in  the  Book  of 
Amos  few  glimpses  of  nature,  and  these  always  under 
a  moral  light.  There  is  not  in  any  chapter  a  landscape 
visible  in  its  own  beauty.  Like  all  desert-dwellers, 
who  when  they  would  praise  the  works  of  God  lift 
their  eyes  to  the  heavens,  Amos  gives  us  but  the 
outlines  of  the  earth — a  mountain  range,*  or  the 
crest  of  a  forest,*  or  the  bare  back  of  the  land,  bent 
from  sea  to  sea.'  Nearly  all  his  figures  are  drawn 
from  the  desert — the  torrent,  the  wild  beasts,  the 
wormwood.*  If  he  visits  the  meadows  of  the  shep- 
herds, it  is  with  the  terror  of  the  people's  doom ;  *  if 
the  vineyards  or  orchards,  it  is  with  the  mildew  and 


'  i.  2 ;  iii.  9 ;  ix.  3, 
•  iL  9, 


•  viii.  12.  '12. 

•  24;  19,  20,  etc.;  7;  vi.  12. 


260 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


the  locust ;  ^  if  the  towns,  it  is  with  drought,  ecUpse 
and  earthquake.^  To  him,  unlike  his  fellows,  unlike 
especially  Hosea,  the  whole  land  is  one  theatre  of 
judgment ;  but  it  is  a  theatre  trembling  to  its  founda- 
tions with  the  drama  enacted  upon  it.  Nay,  land  and 
nature  are  themselves  actors  in  the  drama.  Physical 
forces  are  inspired  with  moral  purpose,  and  become 
the  ministers  of  righteousness.  This  is  the  converse 
of  Elijah^s  vision.  To  the  older  prophet  the  message 
came  that  God  was  not  in  the  fire  nor  in  the  earth- 
quake nor  in  the  tempest,  but  only  in  the  still  small  voice. 
But  to  Amos  the  fire,  the  earthquake  and  the  tempest 
are  all  in  alliance  with  the  Voice,  and  execute  the  doom 
which  it  utters.  The  difference  will  be  appreciated  by 
us,  if  we  remember  the  respective  problems  set  to 
.prophecy  in  those  two  periods.  To  Elijah,  prophet 
of  the  elements,  wild  worker  by  fire  and  water,  by 
life  and  death,  the  spiritual  had  to  be  asserted  and 
enforced  by  itself.  Ecstatic  as  he  was,  Elijah  had  to 
learn  that  the  Word  is  more  Divine  than  all  physical 
violence  and  terror.  But  Amos  understood  that  for 
his  age  the  question  was  very  different.*  Not  only 
was  the  God  of  Israel  dissociated  from  the  powers 
of  nature,  which  were  assigned  by  the  popular  mind 
to  the  various  Ba'alim  of  the  land,  so  that  there  was 
a  divorce  between  His  government  of  the  people  and 
the  influences  that  fed  the  people's  life;  but  morality 
itself  was  conceived  as  provincial.  It  was  narrowed 
to  the  national  interests ;  it  was  summed  up  in  mere 
rules  of  police,  and  these  were  looked  upon  as  not 
so  important  as  the  observances  of  the  ritual.  Therefore 
Amos  was  driven  to  show  that  nature  and  morality 


'  iv.  9  ff. 


•  iv.  6-1 1 ;  vi.  ii;  viii.  8flf. 


Amos.]  COMMON-SENSE  AND  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW  201 


are  one.  Morality  is  not  a  set  of  conventions. 
"  Morality  is  the  order  of  things."  Righteousness 
is  on  the  scale  of  the  universe.  All  things  tremble 
to  the  shock  of  sin  ;  all  things  work  together  for  good 
to  them  that  fear  God. 

With  this  sense  of  law,  of  moral  necessity,  in  Amos 
we  must  not  fail  to  connect  that  absence  of  all  appeal 
to  miracle,  which  is  also  conspicuous  in  his  book. 

We  come  now  to  the  three  disputed  passages : — 

iv.  1 3  : — FoTy  lo !  He  Who  formed  the  hills}  and 
createth  the  wind^  ^  and  declareth  to  man  what  His ' 
mind  is;  Who  maketh  the  dawn  into  darkness ^  and 
marcheth  on  the  heights  of  the  land— Jehovah^  God  of 
HostSf  is  His  Name. 

V.  8,  9 : — Maker  of  the  Pleiades  and  Orion turn- 
ing to  morning  the  murk^  and  day  into  night  He 
darkeneth;  Who  calleth  for  the  waters  of  the  sea^  and 
poureth  them  forth  on  the  face  of  the  earth — Jehovah  His 
Name ;  Who  flasheth  ruin  on  the  strong^  and  destruction 
Cometh  down  on  the  fortress} 

ix.  5,  6  : — And  the  Lord  Jehovah  of  the  Hosts^  Who 
toucheth  the  earth  and  it  rocketh^  and  all  mourn  thai 
dwell  on  it^  and  it  riseth  like  the  Nile  together^  and  sinketh 
like  the  Nile  of  Egypt;  Who  hath  builded  in  the  heavens 
His  ascents^  and  founded  His  vault  upon  the  earth;  Who 
calleth  to  the  waters  of  the  sea^  and  poureth  them  on  the 
face  of  the  earth— Jehovah^  His  Name, 

These  sublime  passages  it  is  natural  to  take  as  the 


»  LXX.  the  thunder, 
■  Or  spirit. 

•  I.e.  God's)  a  more  natural  rendering  than  to  take  his  (as  Hitzig 
does)  as  meaning  man^s. 

•  Sec  above,  pp.  166  f.w.  •  LXX.  Jehovah  0/  Host; 

•  Text  of  last  clause  uncertain  ;  see  above,  p,  167, 


202 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


triple  climax  of  the  doctrine  we  have  traced  through 
the  Book  of  Amos.  Are  they  not  the  natural  leap  of  the 
soul  to  the  stars  ?  The  same  shepherd's  eye  which  has 
marked  sequence  and  effect  unfailing  on  the  desert  soil, 
does  it  not  now  sweep  the  clear  heavens  above  the 
desert,  and  find  there  also  all  things  ordered  and 
arrayed?  The  same  mind  which  traced  the  Divine 
processes  down  history,  which  foresaw  the  hosts  of 
Assyria  marshalled  for  Israel's  punishment,  which  felt 
the  overthrow  of  justice  shock  the  nation  to  their  ruin, 
and  read  the  disasters  of  the  husbandman's  year  as  the 
vindication  of  a  law  higher  than  the  physical — does  it 
not  now  naturally  rise  beyond  such  instances  of  the 
Divine  order,  round  which  the  dust  of  history  rolls,  to 
the  lofty,  undimmed  outlines  of  the  Universe  as  a 
whole,  and,  in  consummation  of  its  message,  declare 
that    all  is  Law,"  and  Law  intelligible  to  man  ? 

But  in  the  way  of  so  attractive  a  conclusion  the 
literary  criticism  of  the  book  has  interposed.  It  is 
maintained  ^  that,  while  none  of  these  sublime  verses 
are  indispensable  to  the  argument  of  Amos,  some  of 
them  actually  interrupt  it,  so  that  when  they  are 
removed  it  becomes  consistent;  that  such  ejaculations  in 
praise  of  Jehovah's  creative  power  are  not  elsewhere 
met  with  in  Hebrew  prophecy  before  the  time  of  the 
Exile ;  that  they  sound  very  Hke  echoes  of  the  Book  of 
Job ;  and  that  in  the  Septuagint  version  of  Hosea  we 
actually  find  a  similar  doxology,  wedged  into  the  middle 
of  an  authentic  verse  of  the  prophet.  *  To  these 
arguments  against  the  genuineness  of  the  three  famous 


'  First  in  1875  by  Duhm,  Theol.  der  Proph,^  p.  119;  and  after  hini 
by  Oort,  Theol.  Tjidschrift^  i88o,  pp.  ii6f. ;  Wellhausen,  inlocis)  Stade 
O^sch,,  I.  571 ;  Cornilly  EinUitungf  176.  '  Hosea  xiii.  4. 


Amos.]  COMMOl^'SENSE  AND  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW  203 


passages,  other  critics,  not  less  able  and  not  less  free, 
like  Robertson  Smith  and  Kuenen,^  have  replied  that 
such  ejaculations  at  critical  points  of  the  prophet's 
discourse  "  are  not  surprising  under  the  general  con- 
ditions of  prophetic  oratory " ;  and  that,  while  one  of 
the  doxologies  does  appear  to  break  the  argument*  of 
the  context,  they  are  all  of  them  thoroughly  in  the  spirit 
and  the  style  of  Amos.  To  this  point  the  discus- 
sion has  been  carried ;  it  seems  to  need  a  closer 
examination. 

We  may  at  once  dismiss  the  argument  which  has 
been  drawn  from  that  obvious  intrusion  into  the  Greek 
of  Hosea  xiii.  4.  Not  only  is  this  verse  not  so  suited 
to  the  doctrine  of  Hosea  as  the  doxologies  are  to  the 
doctrine  of  Amos ;  but  while  they  are  definite  and 
sublime,  it  is  formal  and  flat — ''Who  made  firm  the 
heavens  and  founded  the  earth.  Whose  hands  founded 
all  the  host  of  heaven,  and  He  did  not  display  them 
that  thou  shouldest  walk  after  them."  The  passages 
in  Amos  are  vision ;  this  is  a  piece  of  catechism 
crumbling  into  homily. 

Again — an  argument  in  favour  of  the  authenticity 
of  these  passages  may  be  drawn  from  the  character 
of  their  subjects.  We  have  seen  the  part  which  the 
desert  played  in  shaping  the  temper  and  the  style  of 
Amos.  But  the  works  of  the  Creator,  to  which  these 
passages  lift  their  praise,  are  just  those  most  fondly 
dwelt  upon  by  all  the  poetry  of  the  desert.  The 
Arabian  nomad,  when  he  magnifies  the  power  of  God, 
finds  his  subjects  not  on  the  bare  earth  abojt  him,  but 
in  the  brilliant  heavens  and  the  heavenly  processes. 


*  Smith,  Prophets  of  Isratl^  p.  399 ;  Kuenen,  HisU  Krit.  EinL 
(Germ.  Ed.),  11.  147-  '     8,  » 


204 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Again,  the  critic  who  affirms  that  the  passages  in 
Amos  in  every  case  sensibly  disturb  the  connection,"^ 
exaggerates.  In  the  case  of  the  first  of  them,  chap.  iv. 
13,  the  disturbance  is  not  at  all  sensible";  though  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  oracle  closes  impressively 
enough  without  it.  The  last  of  them,  chap.  ix.  5,  6 — 
which  repeats  a  clause  already  found  in  the  book  ^ — is 
as  much  in  sympathy  with  its  context  as  most  of  the 
oracles  in  the  somewhat  scattered  discourse  of  that  last 
section  of  the  book.  The  real  difficulty  is  the  second 
doxology,  chap.  v.  8,  9,  which  does  break  the  connection, 
and  in  a  sudden  and  violent  way.  Remove  it,  and  the 
argument  is  consistent.  We  cannot  read  chap.  v. 
without  feeling  that,  whether  Amos  wrote  these  verses 
or  not,  they  did  not  originally  stand  where  they  stand 
at  present. 

Now,  taken  with  this  dispensableness  of  two  of  the 
passages  and  this  obvious  intrusion  of  one  of  them,  the 
following  additional  fact  becomes  ominous.  Jehovah  is 
His  Name  (which  occurs  in  two  of  the  passages),^  or 
Jehovah  of  Hosts  is  His  Name  (which  occurs  at  least  in 
one),*  is  a  construction  which  does  not  happen  elsewhere 
in  the  book,  except  in  a  verse  where  it  is  awkward 
and  where  we  have  already  seen  reason  to  doubt  its 
genuineness.*  But  still  more,  the  phrase  does  not  occur 
in  any  other  prophet,  till  we  come  down  to  the  oracles 
which  compose  Isaiah  xl. — Ixvi.  Here  it  happens 
thrice — twice  in  passages  dating  from  the  Exile,^  and 
once  in  a  passage  suspected  by  some  to  be  of  still  later 

>  Cornill,  Etnl.,  176.  *  Cf.  viil  8. 

•  V.  8 ;  ix.  6,  though  here  LXX.  read  Jehovah  of  Hosts  ts  His  Nanti, 

*  iv.  13.    See  previous  note. 

•  V.  27.    See  above,  pp.  172  f.  m.  :  dl  Hosea  xii  6ii 

*  xlvii.  4  and  liv.  J. 


Amos.]  COMMON-SENSE  AND  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW  205 


date.^  In  the  Book  of  Jeremiah  the  phrase  is  found  eight 
times  ;  but  either  in  passages  already  on  other  grounds 
judged  by  many  critics  to  be  later  than  Jeremiah,^  or 
where  by  itself  it  is  probably  an  intrusion  into  the  text' 
Now  is  it  a  mere  coincidence  that  a  phrase,  which,  out- 
side the  Book  of  Amos,  occurs  only  in  writing  of  the 
time  of  the  Exile  and  in  passages  considered  for  other 
reasons  to  be  post-exilic  insertions — is  it  a  mere  coin- 
cidence that  within  the  Book  of  Amos  it  should  again 
be  found  only  in  suspected  verses  ? 

There  appears  to  be  in  this  more  than  a  coincidence  ; 
and  the  present  writer  cannot  but  feel  a  very  strong 
case  against  the  traditional  belief  that  these  doxologies 
are  original  and  integral  portions  of  the  Book  of  Amos. 
At  the  same  time  a  case  which  has  failed  to  convince 
critics  like  Robertson  Smith  and  Kuenen  cannot  be 
considered  conclusive,  and  we  are  so  ignorant  of  many 
of  the  conditions  of  prophetic  oratory  at  this  period 
that  dogmatism  is  impossible.  For  instance,  the  use 
by  Amos  of  the  Divine  titles  is  a  matter  over  which 
uncertainty  still  lingers ;  and  any  further  argument 
on  the  subject  must  include  a  fuller  discussion  than 
space  here  allows  of  the  remarkable  distribution  ol 
those  titles  throughout  the  various  sections  of  the 
book.* 


*  xlviii.  2 :  cf.  Duhm,  in  loco,  and  Cheyne,  Introduction  to  the  Book 
of  Isaiah,  301. 

'  X,  16;  xxxi.  35  ;  xxxii.  18  ;  1.  34  (perhaps  a  quotation  from  Isa. 
xlvii.  4) ;  li.  19,  57. 

*  xlvi.  18,  where  the  words  \0^>  HlS^nV  fail  in  LXX.  ;  xlviii.  15 
where  the  clause  in  which  it  occurs  is  wanting  in  the  LXX. 

*  But  I  have  room  at  least  for  a  bare  statement  of  these  remarkable 
facts : — 

The  titles  for  the  God  of  Israel  used  in  the  Book  of  Amos  arc 
hesc:  (l)  Thy  God,  O  Israel,  IM^K  ;  (2)  Jehovah,  TS^n"^  \  (3) 


206 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


But  if  it  be  not  given  to  us  to  prove  this  kind  of 
authenticity — a  question  whose  data  are  so  obscure, 
yet  whose  answer  fortunately  is  of  so  little  significance 
— let  us  gladly  welcome  that  greater  Authenticity 
whose  undeniable  proofs  these  verses  so  splendidly 
exhibit.  No  one  questions  their  right  to  the  place 
which  some  great  spirit  gave  them  in  this  book — their 
suitableness  to  its  grand  and  ordered  theme,  their 
pure  vision  and  their  eternal  truth.    That  common- 


Lord  Jehovah,  HIH^  ;  (4)  Lord  Jehovah  •/  the  Hosts,  nin>  ^nfc< 
niXnV;  (5)  Jehovah  God  of  Hosts  or  of  the  Hosts,  HINl^  ^H^X  HIH^ 

or  nixn^*n. 

Now  in  the  First  Section,  chaps,  i.,  ii.,  it  is  interesting  that  we 
find  none  of  the  variations  which  are  compounded  with  Hosts,  HIK^V. 
By  itself  HI  PI*  (especially  in  the  phrase  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  1DX 
.nin^)  is  general;  and  once  only  (i.  8)  is  Lord  Jehovah  employed. 
The  phrase,  oracle  of  Jehovah,  niH^  DXJ^  is  also  rare;  it  occurs  only 
twice  (ii.  Ii,  16),  and  then  only  in  the  passage  dealing  with  Israel, 
and  not  at  all  in  the  oracles  against  foreign  nations. 

In  Sections  II.  and  III.  the  simple  H^H^  is  again  most  frequently 
used.    But  we  find  also  Lord  Jehovah,  Hin^  (iii.  7,  8;  iv.  2,  5; 

V.  3,  with  alone  in  the  parallel  ver.  4;  vi.  8 ;  vii.  I,  2,  4  bis, 

5,  6;  viii.  I,  3,  9,  ii),  used  either  indifferently  with  niiT';  or  in  verses 
where  it  seems  more  natural  to  emphasise  the  sovereignty  of  Jehovah 
than  His  simple  Name  (as,  e.g.,  where  He  swears,  iv.  2,  vi.  8,  yet  when 
the  same  phrase  occurs  in  viii.  7  Hin^  alone  is  used);  or  in  the  solemn 
Visions  of  the  Third  Section  (but  not  in  the  Narrative) ;  and  some- 
times we  find  in  the  Visions  Lord,  ^3"Ifc<,  alone  without  niH^  (vii.  7,  8  ; 
ix.  1).  The  titles  containing  HINDV  or  niN2V  ^IT^X  occur  nim 
times.  Of  these  five  are  in  passages  which  we  have  seen  other 
reasons  to  suppose  are  insertions:  two  of  the  Doxologies — iv.  13, 

nixnv  "^rh^  nin\  and  ix.  5,  nixnvn  nin^  ^jn^^  (in  addition  the  lxx. 

read  in  ix.  6  niNHV  Hin''),  and  in  v.  14,  15  (see  p.  168)  and  27  (see 
p.  172),  in  all  three  DI^^HV  nin\    The  four  genuine  passages 

are  iii.  13,  where  we  find  mt^n^H  niH^  preceded  by  ^^IN ;  v.  16, 

where  we  have  niXnV  njH''  followed  by  ^JlN  ;  vi.  8,  nin> 

niNnV,  and  vl  14,  niXDV  nin\    Throughout  the  last  two 

sections  of  the  book  D^J}  is  used  with  all  these  forms  of  the  Divine 


Amos.]  COMMON-SENSE  .^ND  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW  207 


sense,  and  that  conscience,  which,  moving  among 
the  events  of  earth  and  all  the  tangled  processes 
of  history,  find  everywhere  reason  and  righteousness 
at  work,  in  these  verses  claim  the  Universe  for  the 
same  powers,  and  see  in  stars  and  clouds  and  the 
procession  of  day  and  night  the  One  Eternal  God  Who 
declareih  to  man  what  His  mind  is. 


HOSEA 


VOL.  I. 


14 


•  For  leal  love  have  I  desired  and  not  sacrifice 
And  the  knowledge  of  God  rather  than  bumt-ofierings.*^ 


CHAPTER  XII 


i 


THE  BOOK  OF  HOSEA 

THE  Book  of  Hosea  consists  of  two  unequal  sec- 
tions, chaps,  i. — iii.  and  chaps,  iv. — xiv.,  which 
differ  in  the  dates  of  their  standpoints,  to  a  large  extent 
also  in  the  details  of  their  common  subjects,  but  still 
more  largely  in  their  form  and  style.  The  First  Section 
is  in  the  main  narrative ;  though  the  style  rises  to  the 
pitch  of  passionate  pleading  and  promise,  it  is  fluent 
and  equable.  It  one  verse  be  omitted  and  three 
others  transposed,^  the  argument  is  continuous.  In 
the  Second  Section,  on  the  contrary,  we  have  a  stream 
of  addresses  and  reflections,  appeals,  upbraidings,  sar- 
casms, recollections  of  earlier  history,  denunciations 
and  promises,  which,  with  little  logical  connection 
and  almost  no  pauses  or  periods,  start  impulsively 
from  each  other,  and  for  a  large  part  are  expressed 
in  elliptic  and  ejaculatory  phrases.  In  the  present 
restles*=^ness  of  Biblical  Criticism  it  would  have  been 
surprising  if  this  difference  of  style  had  not  prompted 
some  minds  to  a  difference  of  authorship.  Gratz  ^  has 
distinguished  two  Hoseas,  separated  by  a  period  of  fifty 
years.  But  if,  as  we  shall  see,  the  First  Section  reflects 
the  end  of  the  reign  of  Jeroboam  II.,  who  died  about 
743,  then  the  next  few  years,  with  their  revolutionary 

'  Sec  below,  pp.  2x3  t  ■  Geschichte^  pp.  93  ff.,  214  ff.,  439  £ 

an 


212 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


changes  in  Israel,  are  sufficient  to  account  for  the 
altered  outlook  of  the  Second  Section  ;  while  the  altered 
style  is  fully  explained  by  difference  of  occasion  and 
motive.  In  both  sections  not  only  are  the  religious 
principles  identical,  and  many  of  the  characteristic 
expressions,^  but  there  breathes  throughout  the  same 
urgent  and  jealous  temper,  which  renders  Hosea's 
personality  so  distinctive  among  the  prophets.  Within 
this  unity,  of  course,  we  must  not  be  surprised  to  find, 
as  in  the  Book  of  Amos,  verses  which  cannot  well  be 
authentic. 

First  Section  :  Hosea's  Prophetic  Life. 

With  the  removal  of  some  of  the  verses  the  argu- 
pient  becomes  clear  and  consecutive.  After  the  story 
of  the  wife  and  children  (i.  2-9),  who  are  symbols  of 
the  land  and  people  of  Israel  in  their  apostasy  from 
God  (2,  4,  6,  9),  the  Divine  voice  calls  on  the  living 
generation  to  plead  with  their  mother  lest  destruction 
come  (ii.  2-5,  Eng. ;  ii.  4-7,  Heb.^),  but  then  passes 
definite  sentence  of  desolation  on  the  land  and  of  exile 
on  the  people  (6-13,  Eng. ;  8-15,  Heb.),  which  however 
is  not  final  doom,  but  discipline,*  with  the  ultimate 
promise  of  the  return  of  the  nation's  youth,  their 
renewed  betrothal  to  Jehovah  and  the  restoration  of 
nature  (14-23).  Then  follows  the  story  of  the  pro- 
phet's restoration  of  his  wife,  also  with  discipline 
(chap.  iii.). 

Notice  that,  although  the  story  of  the  wife's  fwU 
has  preceded  the  declaration  of  Israel's  apostasy,  il  is 


*  A  list  of  the  more  obvious  is  given  by  Kuenen,  p.  324. 
■  The  first  chapter  in  the  Hebrew  closes  with  ver.  9. 

•  C£^  this  with  Amos;  above,  pp.  192  ff. 


THE  BOOK  OF  HOSEA 


213 


Israel's  restoration  which  precedes  the  wife's.  The 
ethical  significance  of  this  order  we  shall  illustrate  in 
the  next  chapter. 

In  this  section  the  disturbing  verses  are  i.  7  and 
the  group  of  three — i.  10,  II,  ii.  i  (Eng.;  but  ii.  1-3 
Heb.).  Chap.  i.  7  introduces  Judah  as  excepted  from 
the  curse  passed  upon  Israel ;  it  is  so  obviously  intru- 
sive in  a  prophecy  dealing  only  with  Israel,  and  it  so 
clearly  reflects  the  deliverance  of  Judah  from  Senna- 
cherib in  701,  that  we  cannot  hold  it  for  anything  but 
an  insertion  of  a  date  subsequent  to  that  deliverance, 
and  introduced  by  a  pious  Jew  to  signalise  Judah's  fate 
in  contrast  with  Israel's.^ 

The  other  three  verses  (i.  10,  II,  ii.  I,  Eng. ;  ii.  1-3, 
Heb.)  introduce  a  promise  of  restoration  before  the 
sentence  of  judgment  is  detailed,  or  any  ethical  con- 
ditions of  restoration  are  stated.  That  is,  they  break 
and  tangle  an  argument  otherwise  consistent  and  pro- 
gressive from  beginning  to  end  of  the  Section.  Every 
careful  reader  must  feel  them  out  of  place  where  they 
lie.  Their  awkwardness  has  been  so  much  appre- 
ciated that,  while  in  the  Hebrew  text  they  have 
been  separated  from  chap,  i.,  in  the  Greek  they  have 
been  separated  from  chap.  ii.  That  is  to  say,  some 
have  felt  they  have  no  connection  with  what  precedes 
them,  others  none  with  what  follows  them ;  while  our 
English  version,  by  distributing  them  between  the  two 

'  K<5nig's  arguments  {Einleitung^  309)  in  favour  of  the  possibility 
of  the  genuineness  of  the  verse  do  not  seem  to  me  to  be  conclusive. 
He  thinks  the  verse  admissible  because  Judah  had  sinned  less  than 
Israel ;  the  threat  in  vv.  4-6  is  limited  to  Israel ;  the  phrase  Jehovah 
their  God  is  so  peculiar  that  it  is  difficult  to  assign  it  to  a  mere  ex- 
pander of  the  text ;  and  if  it  was  a  later  hand  that  put  in  the  verse, 
why  did  he  not  alter  the  judgments  against  Judaea,  which  occur  further 
on  in  the  book  ? 


2i4 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


chapters,  only  makes  more  sensible  their  superfluity. 
If  they  really  belong  to  the  prophecy,  their  proper 
place  is  after  the  last  verse  of  chap,  ii.^  This  is 
actually  the  order  in  which  part  of  it  and  part  of  them 
are  quoted  by  St.  Paul.^  At  the  same  time,  when  so 
arranged,  they  repeat  somewhat  awkwardly  the  language 
of  ii.  23,  and  scarcely  form  a  climax  to  the  chapter. 
There  is  nothing  in  their  language  to  lead  us  to  doubt 
that  they  are  Hosea's  own ;  and  ver.  1 1  shows  that 
they  must  have  been  written  at  least  before  the  cap- 
tivity of  Northern  Israel.* 

The  only  other  suspected  clause  in  this  section  is 
that  in  iii.  5,  and  David  their  king]*'  but  if  it  be  struck 
out  the  verse  is  rendered  awkward,  if  not  impossible, 
by  the  immediate  repetition  of  the  Divine  name,  which 
would  not  have  been  required  in  the  absence  of  the 
suspected  clause.* 

The  text  of  the  rest  of  the  section  is  remarkably 
free  from  obscurities.  The  Greek  version  offers  few 
variants,  and  most  of  these  are  due  to  mistranslation.* 
In  iii.  I  for  loved  of  a  husband  it  reads  loving  evil. 

Evidently  this  section  was  written  before  the  death 
of  Jeroboam  II.  The  house  of  Jehu  still  reigns;  and 
as  Hosea  predicts  its  fall  by  war  on  the  classic  battle- 
ground of  Jezreel,  the  prophecy  must  have  been  written 

*  So  Cheyne  and  others,  Kuenen  adhering.  KOnig  agrees  that  they 
have  been  removed  from  their  proper  place  and  the  text  corrupted. 

'  Rom.  ix.  25,  26,  which  first  give  the  end  of  Hosea  ii.  23  (Heb.  25), 
and  then  the  end  of  L  10  (Heb.  ii.  2).    See  below,  p.  249,  n.  2. 

»  721  B.C. 

*  Stade,  Gesch.,  I.  577  ;  Corn  ill,  Einlettung^  who  also  would  exclude 
HO  king  and  no  prince  in  iii.  4. 

•  This  objection,  however,  does  not  hold  against  the  removal  of 
merely  and  David ^  leaving  their  king. 

•  ii.  7,  II,  14,  17  (Heb.).  In  i.  4  B-text  reads  'Iow3a  for  Nin\  while 
Qnaq  have  'Iiyou. 


THE  BOOK  Ot^  HOSEA 


SIS 


before  the  actual  fall,  which  took  the  form  of  an 
internal  revolt  against  Zechariah,  the  son  of  Jeroboam. 
With  this  agrees  the  tone  of  the  section.  There  are 
the  same  evils  in  Israel  which  Amos  exposed  in  the 
prosperous  years  of  the  same  reign  ;  but  Hosea  appears 
to  realise  the  threatened  exile  from  a  nearer  standpoint. 
It  is  probable  also  that  part  of  the  reason  of  his  ability 
to  see  his  way  through  the  captivity  to  the  people's 
restoration  is  due  to  a  longer  familiarity  with  the 
approach  of  captivity  than  Amos  experienced  before  he 
wrote.  But,  of  course,  for  Hosea's  promise  of  restoration 
there  were,  as  we  shall  see,  other  and  greater  reasons  of 
a  religious  kind.^ 

Second  Section  :  Chaps,  iv. — xiv. 

When  we  pass  into  these  chapters  we  feel  that  the 
times  are  changed.  The  dynasty  of  Jehu  has  passed  : 
kings  are  faUing  rapidly:  Israel  devours  its  rulers:* 


*  In  determining  the  date  of  the  Book  of  Hosea  the  title  in  chap.  i.  is 
of  no  use  to  us  :  The  Word  of  Jehovah  which  was  to  Hosea  ben  Be'eri 
in  the  days  of  Uzzmh,  Jothant^  Ahaz,  Hezekiah,  kings  of  Judah^  and 
in  the  days  of  Jeroboam  benjoashy  king  of  Israel.  This  title  is  trebly 
suspicious.  First :  the  given  reigns  of  Judah  and  Israel  do  not 
correspond ;  Jeroboam  was  dead  before  Uzziah.  Second :  there  is 
no  proof  either  in  the  First  or  Second  Section  of  the  book  that  Hosea 
prophesied  after  the  reign  of  Jotham.  Third  :  it  is  curious  that  in 
the  case  of  a  prophet  of  Northern  Israel  kings  of  Judah  should  be 
stated  first,  and  four  of  them  be  given  while  only  one  king  of  his 
own  country  is  placed  beside  them.  On  these  grounds  critics  are 
probably  correct  who  take  the  title  as  it  stands  to  be  the  work  of 
some  later  Judaean  scribe  who  sought  to  make  it  correspond  to  the 
titles  of  the  Books  of  Isaiah  and  Micah.  He  may  have  been  the  same 
who  added  chap.  i.  7.  The  original  form  of  the  title  probably  was 
The  Word  of  God  which  was  to  Hosea  son  of  Be^eri  in  the  days  of 
Jeroboam  ben  Joash^  king  of  Israel^  and  designed  only  for  the  First 
Section  of  the  book,  chaps,  i. — iii. 

'  vii.  7.    There  arc  also  other  passages  which,  while  they  ma} 


2l6 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


there  is  no  loyalty  to  the  king  ;  he  is  suddenly  cut  off ;  ^ 
all  the  princes  are  revolters.^  Round  so  despised  and 
so  unstable  a  throne  the  nation  tosses  in  disorder. 
Conspiracies  are  rife.  It  is  not  only,  as  in  Amos,  the 
the  sins  of  the  luxurious,  of  them  that  are  at  ease  in 
Zion,  which  are  exposed  ;  but  also  literal  bloodshed : 
highway  robbery  with  murder,  abetted  by  the  priests ; ' 
the  thief  breaketh  in  and  the  robber-troop  maketh  a 
raid.*  Amos  looked  out  on  foreign  nations  across  a  quiet 
Israel ;  his  views  of  the  world  are  wide  and  clear ;  but 
in  the  Book  of  Hosea  the  dust  is  up,  and  into  what  is 
happening  beyond  the  frontier  we  get  only  glimpses. 
There  is  enough,  however,  to  make  visible  another  great 
change  since  the  days  of  Jeroboam.  Israel's  self- 
reliance  is  gone.  She  is  as  fluttered  as  a  startled  bird : 
They  call  unto  Egypty  they  go  unto  Assyria}  Their 
wealth  is  carried  as  a  gift  to  King  Jareb,*  and  they 
evidently  engage  in  intrigues  with  Egypt.  But  every- 
thing is  hopeless  :  kings  cannot  save,  for  Ephraim  is 
seized  by  the  pangs  of  a  fatal  crisis.^ 

This  broken  description  reflects — and  all  the  more 
faithfully  because  of  its  brokenness — the  ten  years 
which  followed  on  the  death  of  Jeroboam  II.  about 
743.*  His  son  Zechariah,  who  succeeded  him,  was 
in  six  months  assassinated  by  Shallum  ben  Jabesh, 
who  within  a  month  more  was  himself  cut  down  by 


be  referred,  as  they  stand,  to  the  whole  succession  of  illegitimate 
dynasties  in  Northern  Israel  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  that 
kingdom,  more  probably  reflect  the  same  ten  years  of  special 
anarchy  and  disorder  after  the  death  of  Jeroboam  II.  See  vii.  3  flf. ; 
viii.  4,  where  the  illegitimate  kingmaking  is  coupled  with  the  idolatry 
of  the  Northern  Kingdom;  xiii.  10,  1 1. 

•  X.  3,  7,  8,  15.  •  vi.  8,  9.  •  vii.  1 1.  '  xiii.  12 1 

•  ix.  15.  *  vii.  I.  •  X.  6. 

•  The  chronology  of  these  years  is  exceedingly  uncertain.  JcroboaK 


THE  BOOK  OF  HOSEA 


Menahem  ben  Gadi.^  Menahem  held  the  throne  for 
six  or  seven  years,  but  only  by  sending  to  the  King 
of  Assyria  an  enormous  tribute  which  he  exacted 
from  the  wealthy  magnates  of  Israel.*  Discontent 
must  have  followed  these  measures,  such  discontent 
with  their  rulers  as  Hosea  describes.  Pekahiah 
ben  Menahem  kept  the  throne  for  little  over  a  year 
after  his  father's  death,  and  was  assassinated  by  his 
captain,^  Pekah  ben  Remaliah,  with  fifty  Gileadites, 
and  Pekah  took  the  throne  about  736.  This  second 
and  bloody  usurpation  may  be  one  of  those  on  which 
Hosea  dwells ;  but  if  so  it  is  the  last  historical  allusion 
in  his  book.  There  is  no  reference  to  the  war  of 
Pekah  and  Rezin  against  Ahaz  of  Judah  which  Isaiah 
describes,*  and  to  which  Hosea  must  have  alluded  had 
he  been  still  prophesying.^  There  is  no  allusion  to 
its  consequence  in  Tiglath-Pileser's  conquest  of  Gilead 


was  dead  about  743 )  73^  Menahem  gave  tribute  to  Assyria ;  in 
734  Tiglath-Pileser  had  conquered  Aram,  Gilead  and  Gab'lee  in 
response  to  King  Ahaz,  who  had  a  year  or  two  before  been  attacked 
by  Rezin  of  Aram  and  Pekah  of  Israel. 

•  2  Kings  XV.  8-16.  It  may  be  to  this  appearance  of  three  kings 
within  one  month  that  there  was  originally  an  allusion  in  the  now 
obscure  verse  of  Hosea,  v.  7. 

•  2  Kings  XV.  17-22. 

•  Or  prince,       :  of.  Hosea*s  denunciation  of  the  U^y^  as  rebels. 

•  Isa.  vii. ;  2  Kings  xv.  37,  38. 

•  Some  have  found  a  later  allusion  in  chap.  x.  14:  like  unto  the 
destruction  of  (?)  Shalntan  (of  ?)  Beth  ^ Arbe'l.  Pusey,  p.  5  6,  and  others 
take  this  to  allude  to  a  destruction  of  the  Galilean  Arbela,  the  modern 
Irbid,  by  Salmanassar  IV.,  who  ascended  the  Assyrian  throne  in  727 
and  besieged  Samaria  in  724  ff.  But  since  the  const.  tli<» 
phrase  leaves  it  doubtful  whether  the  name  Shalman  is  tnai  01  tne 
agent  or  object  of  the  destruction,  and  whether,  if  the  agent,  he  be 
one  of  the  Assyrian  Salmanassars  or  a  Moabite  King  Salman  c,  730  B.C., 
it  is  impossible  to  make  use  of  the  verse  in  fixing  the  date  of  the 
Book  of  Hosea.    See  further,  p.  289.    Wellhausen  omits. 


3l8 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


and  Galilee  in  734 — 733.  On  the  contrary,  these 
provinces  are  still  regarded  as  part  of  the  body  politic 
of  Israel.^  Nor  is  there  any  sign  that  Israel  have 
broken  with  Assyria ;  to  the  last  the  book  represents 
them  as  fawning  on  the  Northern  Power.* 

In  all  probability,  then,  the  Book  of  Hosea  was 
closed  before  734  b.c.  The  Second  Section  dates 
ivom  the  years  behind  that  and  back  to  the  death  of 
Jeroboam  II.  about  743,  while  the  First  Section,  as  we 
saw,  reflects  the  period  immediately  before  the  latter. 

We  come  now  to  the  general  style  of  chaps,  iv. — xiv. 
The  period,  as  we  have  seen,  was  one  of  the  most 
broken  of  all  the  history  of  Israel ;  the  political  outlook, 
the  temper  of  the  people,  were  constantly  changing. 
Hosea,  who  watched  these  kaleidoscopes,  had  himself 
an  extraordinarily  mobile  and  vibrant  mind.  There 
could  be  no  greater  contrast  to  that  fixture  of  conscience 
which  renders  the  Book  of  Amos  so  simple  in  argu- 
ment, so  firm  in  style.^  It  was  a  leaden  plummet 
which  Amos  saw  Jehovah  setting  to  the  structure  of 
Israel's  life.*  But  Hosea  felt  his  own  heart  hanging 
at  the  end  of  the  line ;  and  this  was  a  heart  that  could 
never  be  still.    Amos  is  the  prophet  of  law ;  he  sees  the 

»  V.  I ;  vi.  8;  xii.  12:  cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Prophets^  156. 

•  Cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Lc. 

•  Cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Prophets^  157:  Hosea's  "language  and  the 
movement  of  his  thoughts  are  far  removed  from  the  simplicity  and 
self-control  which  characterise  the  prophecy  of  Amos.  Indignation 
and  sorrow,  tenderness  and  severity,  faith  in  the  sovereignty  of 
Jehovah's  love,  and  a  despairing  sense  of  Israel's  infidelity  are  woven 
^firether  in  a  sequence  which  has  no  logical  plan,  but  is  determined 
wy  the  battle  and  alternate  victory  of  contending  emotions ;  and 
the  swift  transitions,  the  fragmentary  unbalanced  utterance,  the 
half-developed  allusions,  that  make  his  prophecy  so  difficult  to  the 
commentator,  express  the  agony  of  this  inward  conflict.** 

•  See  abovc^  p.  114. 


THE  BOOK  OF  HOSEA 


219 


Divine  processes  work  themselves  out,  irrespective  of  the 
moods  and  intrigues  of  the  people,  with  which,  after  all, 
he  was  little  familiar.  So  each  of  his  paragraphs  moves 
steadily  forward  to  a  climax,  and  every  climax  is  Doom 
— the  captivity  of^  the  people  to  Assyria.  You  can 
divide  his  book  by  these  things ;  it  has  its  periods, 
strophes  and  refrains.  It  marches  like  the  hosts  of 
the  Lord  of  hosts.  But  Hosea  had  no  such  un- 
hampered vision  of  great  laws.  He  was  too  familiar 
with  the  rapid  changes  of  his  fickle  people ;  and  his 
affection  for  them  was  too  anxious.  His  style  has 
all  the  restlessness  and  irritableness  of  hunger  about 
it — the  hunger  of  love.  Hosea*s  eyes  are  never  at 
rest.  He  seeks,  he  welcomes,  for  moments  of  extra- 
ordinary fondness  he  dwells  upon  every  sign  of  his 
people's  repentance.  But  a  Divine  jealousy  succeeds, 
and  he  questions  the  motives  of  the  change.  You  feel 
that  his  love  has  been  overtaken  and  surprised  by  his 
knowledge ;  and  in  fact  his  whole  style  might  be 
described  as  a  race  between  the  two — a  race  varying 
and  uncertain  up  to  almost  the  end.  The  transitions 
are  very  swift.  You  come  upon  a  passage  of  exquisite 
tenderness  :  the  prophet  puts  the  people's  penitence  in 
his  own  words  with  a  sympathy  and  poetry  that  are 
sublime  and  seem  final.  But  suddenly  he  remembers 
how  false  they  are,  and  there  is  another  light  in  his 
eyes.  The  lustre  of  their  tears  dies  from  his  verses, 
like  the  dews  of  a  midsummer  morning  in  Ephraim  ; 
and  all  is  dry  and  hard  again  beneath  the  brazen  sun 
of  his  amazement.  What  shall  I  do  unto  thee^  Ephraim  ? 
What  shall  I  do  unto  thee^Judah  ?  Indeed,  this  figure 
of  his  own  is  insufficient  to  express  the  suddenness 
with  which  Hosea  lights  up  some  intrigue  of  the  states- 
men of  the  day,  or  some  evil  habit  of  the  priests,  or 


220 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


some  hidden  orgy  of  the  common  people.  Rather  than 
the  sun  it  is  the  lightning — the  lightning  in  pursuit  of 
a  serpent. 

The  elusiveness  of  the  style  is  the  greater  that  many 
passages  do  not  seem  to  have  been  prepared  for  public 
delivery.  They  are  more  the  play  of  the  prophet's 
mind  than  his  set  speech.  They  are  not  formally 
addressed  to  an  audience,  and  there  is  no  trace  in 
them  of  oratorical  art. 

Hence  the  language  of  this  Second  Section  of  the 
Book  of  Hosea  is  impulsive  and  abrupt  beyond  all 
comparison.  There  is  little  rhythm  in  it,  and  almost 
no  argument.  Few  metaphors  are  elaborated.  Even 
the  brief  parallelism  of  Hebrew  poetry  seems  too  long 
for  the  quick  spasms  of  the  writer's  heart.  "  Osee/' 
said  Jerome/  "  commaticus  est,  et  quasi  per  sententias 
loquitur."  He  speaks  in  little  clauses,  often  broken 
off ;  he  is  impatient  even  of  copulas.  And  withal  he 
uses  a  vocabulary  full  of  strange  words,  which  the 
paucity  of  parallelism  makes  much  the  more  difficult. 

To  this  original  brokenness  and  obscurity  of  the 
language  are  due,  firsts  the  great  corruption  of  the  text ; 
second,  the  difficulty  of  dividing  it ;  third,  the  uncer- 
tainty of  deciding  its  genuineness  or  authenticity. 

I.  The  Text  of  Hosea  is  one  of  the  most  dilapidated 
in  the  Old  Testament,  and  in  parts  beyond  possibility 
of  repair.  It  is  probable  that  glosses  were  found  neces- 
sary at  an  earlier  period  and  to  a  larger  extent  than  in 
most  other  books:  there  are  evident  traces  of  some; 
yet  it  is  not  always  possible  to  disentangle  them.*  The 
value  of  the  Greek  version  is  curiously  mixed.  The 
authors  had  before  them  much  the  same  difficulties  as 


f  PrcBf,  in  Duod,  Prophetas^ 


•  Especially  in  chap.  viL 


THE  BOOK  OF  HOSEA 


221 


we  have,  and  they  made  many  more  for  themselves* 
Some  of  their  mistranslations  are  outrageous :  they 
occur  not  only  in  obscure  passages,  where  they  may 
be  pardoned ;  ^  but  even  where  there  are  parallel  terms 
with  which  the  translators  show  themselves  famiUar.^ 
Sometimes  they  have  translated  word  by  word,  without 
any  attempt  to  give  the  general  sense  ;  and  as  a  whole 
their  version  is  devoid  both  of  beauty  and  compactness. 
Yet  not  infrequently  they  supply  us  with  a  better  read- 
ing than  the  Massoretic  text.  Occasionally  they  divide 
words  properly  which  the  latter  misdivides.'  They 
often  give  more  correctly  the  easily  confused  pronominal 
suffixes;*  and  the  copula.*  And  they  help  us  to  the 
true  readings  of  many  other  words.*  Here  and  there 
an  additional  clause  in  the  Greek  is  plethoric,  perhaps 
copied  by  mistake  from  a  similar  verse  in  the  context.^ 
All  of  these  will  be  noticed  separately  as  we  reach  them. 
But,  even  after  these  and  other  aids,  we  shall  find  that 
the  text  not  infrequently  remains  impracticable. 

2.  As  great  as  the  difficulty  of  reaching  a  true  text 


•  As  in  xi.  2  b, 

■  This  is  especially  the  case  in  x.  11-13  ;  xi.  4;  xiv.  5. 

•  E.g,  vi.  5  i :  M.T.  XV^  IIX  l^DSm  which  is  nonsense ;  LXX. 
llfcO  ^tDQC'^D,  My  judgment  shall  go  forth  like  light  xi.  2 :  M.T. 
Dn^J^P;  LXX.  DH 

•  iv.  4,  nor  for  -JDi; ;  8,  D^J^DJ  for  QJ— perhaps ;  13,  H^V  ; 
V.  2;  vi.  2  (possibly)  ;  viii.  4,  read  •innD\'  ix.  2;  xi.  2,  3  ;  xi.  5,  6, 
where  for  vh  read  lS ;  10,  read  "q^. ;  xii.  9;  xiv.  9  a,  for  h. 
On  the  other  hand,  they  are  either  improbable  or  quite  wrong,  as  in 
V.  26;  vi.  2  (but  the  LXX.  may  be  right  here);  vii.  i*;  xi.  I,  4; 
xil  5;  xiii.  14,  15  (ter.). 

•  V.  5  (so  as  to  change  the  tense :  and  Judah  shall  stumble)  ; 
xil.  3,  etc. 

•  vi.  3;  viii.  10,  13;  ix.2;  x.  4,  13*,  15  (probably);  xii.  2;  xiii. 9; 
xiv.  3.    Wrong  tense,  xii.  1 1.    Cf.  also  vi,  3. 

^  E^,  viii.  13, 


222 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


in  this  Second  Section  of  the  book  is  the  difficulty  of 
Dividing  it.    Here  and  there,  it  is  true,  the  Greek  helps 
us  to  improve  upon  the  division  into  chapters  and 
verses  of  the  Hebrew  text,  which  is  that  of  our  own 
English  version.    Chap.  vi.  1-4  ought  to  follow  imme- 
diately on  to  the  end  of  chap,  v.,  with  the  connecting 
word  saying.    The  last  few  words  of  chap.  vi.  go  with 
the  first  two  of  chap,  vii.,  but  perhaps  both  are  gloss. 
The  openings  of  chaps,  xi.  and  xii.  are  better  arranged 
in  the  Hebrew  than  in  the  Greek.    As  regards  verses 
we  shall  have  to  make  several  rearrangements.^  But 
beyond  this  more  or  less  conventional  division  into 
chapters  and  verses  our  confidence  ceases.    It  is  im- 
possible to  separate  the  section,  long  as  it  is,  into  sub- 
sections, or  into  oracles,  strophes  or  periods.  The 
reason  of  this  we  have  already  seen,  in  the  turbulence 
of  the  period  reflected,  in  the  divided  interests  and  abrupt 
and  emotional  style  of  the  author,  and  in  the  probability 
that  part  at  least  of  the  book  was  not  prepared  for 
public    speaking.     The   periods   and  climaxes,  the 
refrains,  the  catchwords  by  which  we  are  helped  to 
divide  even  the  confused  Second  Section  ol  the  Book 
of  Amos,  are  not  found  in  Hosea.    Only  twice  does  the 
exordium  of  a  spoken  address  occur  :  at  the  beginning 
of  the  section  (chap.  iv.  l),  and  at  what  is  now  the  open- 
ing of  the  next  chapter  (v.  i).    The  phrase  7/s  the  oracle 
of  Jehovahf  which  occurs  so  periodically  in  Amos,  and 
thrice  in  the  second  chapter  of  Hosea,  is  found  only 
once  in  chaps,  iv. — xiv.    Again,  the  obvious  climaxes  or 
perorations,  of  which  we  found  so  many  in  Amos,  are 
very  few,^  and  even  when  they  occur  the  next  verses 
start  impulsively  from  them,  without  a  pause. 

>  Cf.  the  Hebrew  and  Greek,  of  e.g.^  iv.  10, 11, 12 ;  vi.  9,  10 ;  viii.  5, 6; 
iz  8,  9.  *  viii.  13  (14  must  be  omitted) ;  ix.  17. 


THE  BOOK  OF  HOSEA 


223 


In  spite  of  these  difficulties,  since  the  section  is  so 
long,  attempts  at  division  have  been  made.  Ewald 
distinguished  three  parts  in  three  different  tempers : 
Firstj  iv. — vi.  1 1  a,  God's  Plaint  against  His  people ; 
Secondj  vi.  11  b — ix.  9,  Their  Punishment ;  Thirdy  ix.  10 
— xiv.  10,  Retrospect  of  the  earlier  history — warning 
and  consolation.  Driver  also  divides  into  three  sub- 
sections, but  differently :  Firsty  iv. — viii.,  in  which 
Israel's  Guilt  predominates;  Second,  ix. — xi.  II,  in 
which  the  prevailing  thought  is  their  Punishment ; 
Thirdy  xi.  12 — xiv.  lO,  in  which  both  lines  of  thought 
are  continued,  but  followed  by  a  glance  at  the  brighter 
future.^  What  is  common  to  both  these  arrangements 
is  the  recognition  of  a  certain  progress  from  feelings 
about  Israel's  guilt  which  prevail  in  the  earlier  chap- 
ters, to  a  clear  vision  of  the  political  destruction 
awaiting  them  ;  and  finally  more  hope  of  repentance 
in  the  people,  with  a  vision  of  the  blessed  future  that 
must  follow  upon  it.  It  is,  how^ever,  more  accurate  to 
say  that  the  emphasis  of  Hosea's  prophesying,  instead 
of  changing  from  the  Guilt  to  the  Punishment  of  Israel, 
changes  about  the  middle  of  chap.  vii.  from  their  Moral 
Decay  to  their  Political  Decay,  and  that  the  description 
of  the  latter  is  modified  or  interrupted  by  Two  Visions 
of  better  things  :  one  of  Jehovah's  early  guidance  of  the 
people,  with  a  great  outbreak  of  His  Love  upon  them,  in 
chap.  xi. ;  and  one  of  their  future  Return  to  Jehovah 
and  restoration  in  chap.  xiv.  It  is  on  these  features 
that  the  division  of  the  following  Exposition  is  arranged. 

3.  It  will  be  obvious  that  with  a  text  so  corrupt, 
with  a  style  so  broken  and  incapable  of  logical  division, 
questions  of  Authenticity  are  raised  to  a  pitch  of  the 


>  Imtrod.  284. 


224 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


greatest  difficulty.  Allusion  has,  been  made  to  the 
number  of  glosses  which  must  have  been  found  neces- 
sary from  even  an  early  period,  and  of  some  of  which 
we  can  discern  the  proofs.^  We  will  deal  with  these 
as  they  occur.  But  we  may  here  discuss,  as  a  whole, 
another  class  of  suspected  passages — suspected  for  the 
same  reason  that  we  saw  a  number  in  Amos  to  be, 
because  of  their  reference  to  Judah.  In  the  Book  of 
Hosea  (chaps,  iv. — xiv.)  they  are  twelve  in  number. 
Only  one  of  them  is  favourable  (iv.  15)  :  Though  Israel 
play  the  harlot^  let  not  Judah  sin.  Kuenen  ^  argues  that 
this  is  genuine,  on  the  ground  that  the  peculiar  verb 
to  sin  or  take  guilt  to  oneself  is  used  several  other 
times  in  the  book,^  and  that  the  wish  expressed  is  in 
consonance  with  what  he  understands  to  be  Hosea's 
favourable  feeling  towards  Judah.  Yet  Hosea  nowhere 
else  makes  any  distinction  between  Ephraim  and  Judah 
in  the  matter  of  sin,  but  condemns  both  equally ;  and  as 
iv.  1 5  f.  are  to  be  suspected  on  other  grounds  as  well, 
I  cannot  hold  this  reference  to  Judah  to  be  beyond 
doubt.  Nor  is  the  reference  in  viii.  14  genuine :  And 
Israel  for  gat  her  Maker  and  built  temples^  and  Judah 
multiplied  fenced  cities^  but  I  will  send  fire  on  his  cities 
and  it  shall  devour  her  palaces.  Kuenen*  refuses  to 
reject  the  reference  to  Judah,  on  the  ground  that 
without  it  the  rhythm  of  the  verse  is  spoiled  ;  but  the 
fact  is  the  whole  verse  must  go.  Chap.  v.  13  forms  a 
climax,  which  v.  14  only  weakens ;  the  style  is  not  like 
Hosea's  own,  and  indeed  is  but  an  echo  of  verses  of 


'  E.g,  iv.  15  (?) ;  vi.  11— vii.  I  (?) ;  vii.  4;  viii.  2  ;  zii.  4 
•  Einl,  323. 

'  DC^^N,  V.  15 ;  z.  a;  xiii.  I ;  xiv,  !• 
•P.  313. 


THE  BOOK  OF  HOSEA 


225 


Amos.*  Nor  can  we  be  quite  sure  about  v.  5  :  Israel 
and  Ephraim  shall  stumble  by  their  iniquities^  and  (LXX.) 
stumble  also  shall  Judah  with  them ;  or  vi.  10,  1 1  :  In 
Bethel  I  have  seen  horrors  :  there  playest  thou  the  harlot^ 
Ephraim;  there  Israel  defiles  himself;  also  Judah  .  .  . 
(the  rest  of  the  text  is  impracticable).  In  both  these 
passages  Judah  is  the  awkward  third  of  a  parallelism, 
and  is  introduced  by  an  also,  as  if  an  afterthought 
Yet  the  afterthought  may  be  the  prophet's  own ;  for 
in  other  passages,  to  which  no  doubt  attaches,  he  fully 
includes  Judah  in  the  sinfulness  of  Israel.  Cornill 
rejects  x.  11  ^  Judah  must  plough,  but  I  cannot  see  on 
what  grounds ;  as  Kuenen  says,  it  has  no  appearance 
of  being  an  intrusion.*  In  xii.  3  Wellhausen  reads 
Israel  for  Judah,  but  the  latter  is  justified  if  not  rendered 
necessary  by  the  reference  to  Judah  in  ver.  i,  which 
Wellhausen  admits.  Against  the  other  references 
— V.  10,  The  princes  of  Judah  are  as  removers  of 
boundaries',  v.  12,  /  shall  be  as  the  moth  to  Ephraim, 
and  a  worm  to  the  house  of  Judah  ;  v.  13,  And  Ephraim 
saw  his  disease,  and  Judah  his  sore  ;  v.  14,  For  I  am  as 
a  roaring  lion  to  Ephraim,  and  as  a  young  lion  to  the 
house  of  Judah ;  vi.  4,  What  shall  I  do  to  thee,  Ephraim  ? 
what  shall  I  do  to  thee,  Judah  ? — there  are  no  appaueuc 
objections ;  and  they  are  generally  admitted  by  critics. 
As  Kuenen  says,  it  would  have  been  surprising  if  Hosea 
had  made  no  reference  to  the  sister  kingdom.  His 
judgment  of  her  is  amply  justified  by  that  of  her  own 
citizens,  Isaiah  and  Micah. 

Other  short  passages  of  doubtful  authenticity  will 
be  treated  as  we  come  to  them  ;  but  again  it  may  be 


*  viii.  14  is  also  rejected  by  Wellhausen  and  CornilL 
'  Loc,  at. 

VOL.  L  rr 


226 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


emphasised  that,  in  a  book  of  such  a  style  as  this, 
certainty  on  the  subject  is  impossible. 

Finally,  there  may  be  given  here  the  only  notable 
addition  which  the  Septuagint  makes  to  the  Book  of 
Hosea.  It  occurs  in  xiii.  4,  after  /  am  Jehovah  thy 
God :  "  That  made  fast  the  heavens  and  founded  the 
earth,  whose  hands  founded  all  the  host  of  the  heaven, 
and  I  did  not  show  them  to  thee  that  thou  shouldest 
follow  after  them,  and  I  led  thee  up  ^^—from  the  land  of 
Egypt. 

At  first  this  recalls  those  apostrophes  to  Jehovah's 
power  which  break  forth  in  the  Book  of  Amos;  and 
the  resemblance  has  been  taken  to  prove  that  they 
also  are  late  intrusions.  But  this  both  obtrudes  itself 
as  they  do  not,  and  is  manifestly  of  much  lower 
poetical  value.    See  page  203. 

We  have  now  our  material  clearly  before  us,  and 
may  proceed  to  the  more  welcome  task  of  tracing  our 
prophet's  life,  and  expounding  his  teaching. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


THE  PROBLEM  THAT  AMOS  LEFT 
MOS  was  a  preacher  of  righteousness  almost 


-Zjl  wholly  in  its  judicial  and  punitive  offices.  Ex- 
posing the  moral  conditions  of  society  in  his  day, 
emphasising  on  the  one  hand  its  obduracy  and  on 
the  other  the  intolerableness  of  it,  he  asserted  that 
nothing  could  avert  the  inevitable  doom — neither 
Israel's  devotion  to  Jehovah  nor  Jehovah's  interest 
in  Israel.  You  alone  have  I  known  of  all  the  families 
of  the  ground :  therefore  will  I  visit  upon  you  all  your 
iniquities.  The  visitation  was  to  take  place  in  war 
and  in  the  captivity  of  the  people.  This  is  practically 
the  whole  message  of  the  prophet  Amos. 

That  he  added  to  it  the  promise  of  restoration  which 
now  closes  his  book,  we  have  seen  to  be  extremely 
improbable.^  Yet  even  if  that  promise  is  his  own, 
Amos  does  not  tell  us  how  the  restoration  is  to  be 
brought  about.  With  wonderful  insight  and  patience 
he  has  traced  the  captivity  of  Israel  to  moral  causes. 
But  he  does  not  show  what  moral  change  in  the  exiles 
is  to  justify  their  restoration,  or  by  what  means  such 
a  moral  change  is  to  be  effected.  We  are  left  to  infer 
the  conditions  and  the  means  of  redemption  from  the 
principles  which  Amos  enforced  while  there  yet  seemed 


'  See  above,  pp,  193  ff. 
227 


228 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


time  to  pray  for  the  doomed  people :  Seek  the  Lord  and 
ye  shall  live}  According  to  this,  the  moral  renewal  of 
Israel  must  precede  their  restoration  ;  but  the  prophet 
seems  to  make  no  great  effort  to  effect  the  renewal. 
In  short  Amos  illustrates  the  easily-forgotten  truth 
that  a  preacher  to  the  conscience  is  not  necessarily  a 
preacher  of  repentance. 

Of  the  great  antitheses  between  which  religion 
moves,  Law  and  Love,  Amos  had  therefore  been  the 
prophet  of  Law.  But  we  must  not  imagine  that  the 
association  of  Love  with  the  Deity  was  strange  to  him. 
This  could  not  be  to  any  Israelite  who  remembered  the 
past  of  his  people — the  romance  of  their  origins  and 
early  struggles  for  freedom.  Israel  had  always  felt  the 
grace  of  their  God;  and,  unless  we  be  wrong  about 
the  date  of  the  great  poem  in  the  end  of  Deuteronomy, 
they  had  lately  celebrated  that  grace  in  lines  of 
exquisite  beauty  and  tenderness : — 

He  found  him  in  a  desert  landy 

In  a  waste  and  a  howling  wilderness. 
He  compassed  him  about^  cared  for  him. 

Kept  him  as  the  apple  of  His  eye. 
As  an  eagle  stirreth  up  his  nest^ 

Fluttereth  over  his  youngs 
Spreadeth  his  wings,  taketh  them^ 

Beareth  them  up  on  his  pinions-^ 
So  Jehovah  alone  led  him} 

The  patience  oF  the  Lord  with  their  waywardness 
and  their  stubbornness  had  been  the  ethical  influence 


•  Deut.  xxxii.  10-12:  a  song  probably  earlier  than  the  eighth 
century.    But  some  put  it  later. 


THE  PROBLEM  THAT  AMOS  LEFT  229 


on  Israel's  life  at  a  time  when  they  had  probably 
neither  code  of  law  nor  system  of  doctrine.  Thy 
gentleness^  as  an  early  Psalmist  says  for  his  people, 
Thy  gentleness  hath  made  me  great}  Amos  is  not 
unaware  of  this  ancient  grace  of  Jehovah.  But  he 
speaks  of  it  in  a  fashion  which  shows  that  he  feels 
it  to  be  exhausted  and  without  hope  for  his  genera- 
tion. /  brought  you  up  out  oj  the  land  of  Egypt^  and 
led  you  forty  years  in  the  wilderness^  to  possess  the 
land  of  the  Amorites,  And  I  raised  up  of  your  sons 
for  prophets  and  of  your  young  men  for  Nazirites} 
But  this  can  now  only  fill  the  cup  of  the  nation's 
sin.  You  alone  have  I  known  of  all  the  families  of  the 
earth:  therefore  will  I  visit  upon  you  all  your  iniquities? 
Jehovah's  ancient  Love  but  strengthens  now  the  justice 
and  the  impetus  of  His  Law. 

We  perceive,  then,  the  problem  which  Amos  left  to 
prophecy.  It  was  not  to  discover  Love  in  the  Deity 
whom  he  had  so  absolutely  identified  with  Law.  The 
Love  of  God  needed  no  discovery  among  a  people  with 
the  Deliverance,  the  Exodus,  the  Wilderness  and  the 
Gift  of  the  Land  in  their  memories.  But  the  problem 
was  to  prove  in  God  so  great  and  new  a  mercy  as  was 
capable  of  matching  that  Law,  which  the  abuse  of  His 
millennial  gentleness  now  only  the  more  fully  justified. 
There  was  needed  a  prophet  to  arise  with  as  keen  a 
conscience  of  Law  as  Amos  himself,  and  yet  affirm 
that  Love  was  greater  still ;  to  admit  that  Israel  were 
doomed,  and  yet  promise  their  redemption  by  processes 
as  reasonable  and  as  ethical  as  those  by  which  the  doom 
had  been  rendered  inevitable.  The  prophet  of  Conscience 
had  to  be  followed  by  the  prophet  of  Repentance. 


'  Psalm  xviii. 


*  ii.  10  t. 


•  iii.  2. 


230 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Such  an  one  was  found  in  Hosea,  the  son  of 
Be'eri,  a  citizen  and  probably  a  priest  of  Northern 
Israel,  whose  very  name,  Salvation^  the  synonym  of 
Joshua  and  of  Jesus,  breathed  the  larger  hope,  which 
it  was  his  glory  to  bear  to  his  people.  Before  we 
see  how  for  this  task  Hosea  was  equipped  with  the 
love  and  sympathy  which  Amos  lacked,  let  us  do  two 
things.  Let  us  appreciate  the  magnitude  of  the  task 
itself,  set  to  him  first  of  prophets ;  and  let  us  remind 
ourselves  that,  greatly  as  he  achieved  it,  the  task  was  not 
one  which  could  be  achieved  even  by  him  once  for  all, 
but  that  it  presents  itself  to  religion  again  and  again  in 
the  course  of  her  development. 

For  the  first  of  these  duties,  it  is  enough  to  recall 
how  much  all  subsequent  prophecy  derives  from  Hosea. 
We  shall  not  exaggerate  if  we  say  that  there  is  no 
truth  uttered  by  later  prophets  about  the  Divine  Grace, 
which  we  do  not  find  in  germ  in  him.  Isaiah  of 
Jerusalem  was  a  greater  statesman  and  a  more  powerful 
writer,  but  he  had  not  Hosea's  tenderness  and  insight 
into  motive  and  character.  Hosea's  marvellous  sym- 
pathy both  with  the  people  and  with  God  is  sufficient 
to  foreshadow  every  grief,  every  hope,  every  gospel, 
which  make  the  books  of  Jeremiah  and  the  great 
Prophet  of  the  Exile  exhaustless  in  their  spiritual  value 
for  mankind.  Those  others  explored  the  kingdom 
of  God:  it  was  Hosea  who  took  it  by  storm. ^  He  is 
the  first  prophet  of  Grace,  Israel's  earliest  Evangelist; 
yet  with  as  keen  a  sense  of  law,  and  of  the  inevitable- 
ness  of  ethical  discipline,  as  Amos  himself. 

But  the  task  which  Hosea  accomplished  was  not  one 
that  could  be  accomplished  once  for  all.    The  interest 


1  Matt.  xi.  12. 


THE  PROBLEM  THAT  AMOS  LEFT  2131 


of  his  book  is  not  merely  historical.  For  so  often  as 
a  generation  is  shocked  out  of  its  old  religious  ideals, 
as  Amos  shocked  Israel,  by  a  realism  and  a  discovery 
of  law,  which  have  no  respect  for  ideals,  however  ancient 
and  however  dear  to  the  human  heart,  but  work  their 
own  pitiless  way  to  doom  inevitable ;  so  often  must  the 
Book  of  Hosea  have  a  practical  value  for  living  men. 
At  such  a  crisis  we  stand  to-day.  The  older  Evan- 
gelical assurance,  the  older  Evangelical  ideals  have  to 
some  extent  been  rendered  impossible  by  the  realism 
to  which  the  sciences,  both  physical  and  historical,  have 
most  healthily  recalled  us,  and  by  their  wonderful 
revelation  of  Law  working  through  nature  and  society 
without  respect  to  our  creeds  and  pious  hopes.  The 
question  presses :  Is  it  still  possible  to  believe  in 
repentance  and  conversion,  still  possible  to  preach  the 
power  of  God  to  save,  whether  the  individual  or  society, 
from  the  forces  of  heredity  and  of  habit  ?  We  can  at 
least  learn  how  Hosea  mastered  the  very  similar  pro- 
blem which  Amos  left  to  him,  and  how,  with  a  moral 
realism  no  less  stern  than  his  predecessor  and  a  moral 
standard  every  whit  as  high,  he  proclaimed  Love  to  be 
the  ultimate  element  in  religion ;  not  only  because  it 
moves  man  to  a  repentance  and  God  to  a  redemption 
more  sovereign  than  any  law ;  but  because  if  neglected 
or  abused,  whether  as  love  of  man  or  love  of  God,  it 
enforces  a  doom  still  more  inexorable  than  that  required 
by  violated  truth  or  by  outraged  justice.  Love  our 
Saviour,  Love  our  almighty  and  unfailing  Father,  but, 
just  because  of  this.  Love  our  most  awful  Judge — we 
turn  to  the  life  and  the  message  in  which  this  eternal 
theme  was  first  unfolded 


CHAPTER  XIV 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  PRODIGAL  WIFE 
HosEA  i. — ^iii. 

I T  has  often  been  remarked  that,  unlike  the  first 
Doomster  of  Israel,  Israel's  first  Evangelist  was 
one  of  themselves,  a  native  and  citizen,  perhaps  even 
a  priest,  of  the  land  to  which  he  was  sent.  This 
appears  even  in  his  treatment  of  the  stage  and  soil  of 
his  ministry.    Contrast  him  in  this  respect  with  Amos. 

In  the  Book  of  Amos  we  have  few  glimpses  of  the 
scenery  of  Israel,  and  these  always  by  flashes  of 
the  lightnings  of  judgment :  the  towns  in  drought  or 
earthquake  or  siege ;  the  vineyards  and  orchards  under 
locusts  or  mildew;  Carmel  itself  desolate,  or  as  a 
hiding-place  from  God's  wrath. 

But  Hosea's  love  steals  across  his  whole  land  like 
the  dew,  provoking  every  separate  scent  and  colour, 
till  all  Galilee  lies  before  us,  lustrous  and  fragrant  as 
nowhere  else  outside  the  parables  of  Jesus.  The  Book 
of  Amos,  when  it  would  praise  God's  works,  looks  to 
the  stars.  But  the  poetry  of  Hosea  clings  about  his 
native  soil  like  its  trailing  vines.  If  he  appeals  tyo  the 
heavens,  it  is  only  that  they  may  speak  to  the  earth, 
and  the  earth  to  the  corn  and  the  wine,  and  the  corn  and 
the  wine  to  Jezreel.^    Even  the  wild  beasts — and  Hosea 


•  ii,  23,  Heb. 
232 


Hos,  i.-iii.]  THE  STORY  OF  THE  PRODIGAL  WIFE  233 


tells  us  of  their  cruelty  almost  as  much  as  Amos — he 
cannot  shut  out  of  the  hope  of  his  love :  /  will  make 
a  covenant  for  them  with  the  beasts  of  the  fields  and  with 
the  fowls  of  heaveUf  and  with  the  creeping  things  of  the 
ground}  God's  love-gifts  to  His  people  are  corn  and 
wool,  flax  and  oil ;  while  spiritual  blessings  are  figured 
in  the  joys  of  them  who  sow  and  reap.  With  Hosea 
we  feel  all  the  seasons  of  the  Syrian  year:  early 
rain  and  latter  rain,  the  first  flush  of  the  young  corn, 
the  scent  of  the  vine  blossom,  the  first  ripe  fig  of  the 
fig-tree  in  her  first  season,  the  bursting  of  the  lily ;  the 
wild  vine  trailing  on  the  hedge,  the  field  of  tares, 
the  beauty  of  the  full  olive  in  sunshine  and  breeze; 
the  mists  and  heavy  dews  of  a  summer  morning  in 
Ephraim,  the  night  winds  laden  with  the  air  of  the 
mountains,  the  scent  of  Lebanon}  Or  it  is  the  dearer 
human  sights  in  valley  and  field  :  the  smoke  from  the 
chimney,  the  chaff  from  the  threshing-floor,  the  doves 
startled  to  their  towers,  the  fowler  and  his  net;  the 
breaking  up  of  the  fallow  ground,  the  harrowing  of  the 
clods,  the  reapers,  the  heifer  that  treadeth  out  the  corn ; 
the  team  of  draught  oxen  surmounting  the  steep  road, 
and  at  the  top  the  kindly  driver  setting  in  food  to  their 
jaws.' 

Where,  I  say,  do  we  find  anything  like  this  save 
in  the  parables  of  Jesus  ?  For  the  love  of  Hosea  was 
as  the  love  of  that  greater  Galilean  :  however  high, 
however  lonely  it  soared,  it  was  yet  rooted  in  the 
common  life  below,  and  fed  with  the  unfailing  grace 
of  a  thousand  homely  sources. 

But  just  as  the  Love  which  first  showed  itself  in  the 


'  ii.  20,  Heb.  «  vi.  3,  4 ;  vii.  8 ;  ix.  10 ;  xiv.  6,  7,  8. 

'  vii.  II,  12;  z.  II ;  xi.  4,  etc 


>34 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


sunny  Parables  of  Galilee  passed  onward  to  Gethsemane 
and  the  Cross,  so  the  love  of  Hosea,  that  had  wakened 
with  the  spring  lilies  and  dewy  summer  mornings  of 
the  North,  had  also,  ere  his  youth  was  spent,  to 
meet  its  agony  and  shame.  These  came  upon  the 
prophet  in  his  home,  and  in  her  in  whom  so  loyal 
and  tender  a  heart  had  hoped  to  find  his  chiefest 
sanctuary  next  to  God.  There  are,  it  is  true,  some  of 
the  ugliest  facts  of  human  life  about  this  prophet's 
experience ;  but  the  message  is  one  very  suited  to  our 
own  hearts  and  times.  Let  us  read  this  story  of  the 
Prodigal  Wife  as  we  do  that  other  Galilean  tale  of  the 
Prodigal  Son.  There  as  well  as  here  are  harlots  ;  but 
here  as  well  as  there  is  the  clear  mirror  of  the  Divine 
Love.  For  the  Bible  never  shuns  realism  when  it 
would  expose  the  exceeding  hatefulness  of  sin  or 
magnify  the  power  of  God's  love  to  redeem.  To  an 
age  which  is  always  treating  conjugal  infidelity  either 
as  a  matter  of  comedy  or  as  a  problem  of  despair,  the 
tale  of  Hosea  and  his  wife  may  still  become,  what  it 
proved  to  his  own  generation,  a  gospel  full  of  love 
and  hope. 

The  story,  and  how  it  led  Hosea  to  understand 
God's  relations  to  sinful  men,  is  told  in  the  first  three 
chapters  of  his  book.  It  opens  with  the  very  startling 
sentence :  The  beginning  of  the  word  of  Jehovah  to 
Hosea : — And Jehovah  said  to  Hosea ^  Go,  take  thee  a  wife 
of  harlotry  and  children  of  harlotry :  for  the  Land  hath 
committed  great  harlotry  in  departing  from  Jehovah} 

The  command  was  obeyed.  And  he  went  and  took 
Gomer^  daughter  of  Diblaint;  *  and  she  conceived^  and  bare 

•  Pregnant  construction,  hath  commUted  great  harlotry  from  after 
J$hovah, 

*  These  personal  names  do  not  elsewhere  occur*    "IDi ;  To^My^ 


Hos.  l.-iH.]    THE  STORY  OF  THE  PRODIGAL  WIFE  235 


to  him  a  son.  And  Jehovah  said  unto  him^  Call  his 
name  Jezreel;  for  yet  a  little  and  I  shall  visit  the  blood  of 
Jezreel  upon  the  house  of  Jehu^  and  will  bring  to  an  end 
the  kingdom  of  the  house  of  Israel ;  and  it  shall  be  on 
that  day  that  I  shall  break  the  bow  of  Israel  in  the  Vale 
of  Jezreel — the  classic  battle-field  of  Israel.^  And  she 
conceived  again^  and  bare  a  daughter;  and  He  said  to 
him  J  Call  her  name  Un-Loved^  or  That-never-knew-a- 
Father^ S'Pity ;  ^  for  I  will  not  again  have  pity — such  pity 
as  a  Father  hath — on  the  house  of  Israel^  that  I  should 
fully  forgive  them?  And  she  weaned  Un-Pitied^  and 
conceived^  and  bare  a  son.    And  He  said^  Call  his  name 


AeprjXaLfif  B ;  Ae^TjXaeifjL,  AQ.  They  have,  of  course,  been  inter- 
preted allegorically  in  the  interests  of  the  theory  discussed  below. 
ID}  has  been  taken  to  mean  "  completion/'  and  interpreted  as  various 
derivatives  of  that  root:  Jerome,  "the  perfect  one";  Raschi,  "that 
fulfilled  all  evil";  Kimchi,  "fulfilment  of  punishment";  Calvin, 
"consumptio,"  and  so  on.  has  been  traced  to  rhvi,  PL 

cakes  of  pressed  figs,  as  if  a  name  had  been  sought  to  con- 
nect the  woman  at  once  with  the  idol-worship  and  a  rich  sweetness; 
or  to  an  Arabic  root,  to  press,  as  if  it  referred  either  to  the 

plumpness  of  the  body  (cf.  Ezek.  xvi.  7 ;  so  Hitzig)  or  to  the  woman's 
habits.  But  all  these  are  far-fetched  and  vain.  There  is  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  either  of  the  two  names  is  symbolic.  The  alternative 
(allowed  by  the  language)  naturally  suggests  itself  that  is  the 

name  of  Comer's  birthplace.  But  there  is  nothing  to  prove  this. 
No  such  place-name  occurs  elsewhere :  one  cannot  adduce  the 
Diblathaim  in  Moab  (Num.  xxxiii.  46  ff.;  Jer.  xlviii.  2). 

>  Hist.  Geog.,  Chap.  XVIII. 

probably  3rd  pers.  sing.  fem.  Pual  (in  Pause 
cf.  Prov.  xxviii.  13) ;  literally,  Shi  is  not  loved  or  pitied.  The  word 
means  love  as  pity :  "  such  pity  as  a  father  hath  unto  his  children 
dear"  (Psalm  ciii.),  or  God  to  a  penitent  man  (Psalm  xxviii.  13). 
The  Greek  versions  alternate  between  love  and  pity.  LXX.  oi>/c 
iike-qix^ri  didri  oi  /jlt]  wpoadria-w  h-L  ijXeijaai,  for  which  the  Complutensian 
has  dyawTjaaif  the  reading  followed  by  Paul  (Rom.  ix.  25:  c£ 
I  Peter  ii.  10). 

"  Here  vcr.  7  is  to  be  omitted,  as  explained  above,  p.  213, 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Not-My-People  :  for  ye  are  not  My  people^  and  I — /  am 
not  yours} 

It  is  not  surprising  that  divers  interpretations  have 
been  put  upon  this  troubled  tale.  The  words  which 
introduce  it  are  so  startling  that  very  many  have  held 
it  to  be  an  allegory,  or  parable,  invented  by  the 
prophet  to  illustrate,  by  familiar  human  figures,  what 
was  at  that  period  the  still  difficult  conception  of  the 
Love  of  God  for  sinful  men.  But  to  this  well-intended 
argument  there  are  insuperable  objections.  It  implies 
that  Hosea  had  first  awakened  to  the  relations  of 
Jehovah  and  Israel — He  faithful  and  full  of  affection, 
she  unfaithful  and  thankless — and  that  then,  in  order 
to  illustrate  the  relations,  he  had  invented  the  story. 
To  that  we  have  an  adequate  reply.  In  the  first  place, 
though  it  were  possible,  it  is  extremely  improbable, 
that  such  a  man  should  have  invented  such  a  tale 
about  his  wife,  or,  if  he  was  unmarried,  about  himself. 
But,  in  the  second  place,  he  says  expressly  that  his 
domestic  experience  was  the  beginning  of  JehovaKs 
word  to  him.  That  is,  he  passed  through  it  first,  and 
only  afterwards,  with  the  sympathy  and  insight  thus 
acquired,  he  came  to  appreciate  Jehovah's  relation  to 
Israel.  Finally,  the  style  betrays  narrative  rather  than 
parable.  The  simple  facts  are  told;  there  is  an 
absence  of  elaboration ;  there  is  no  effort  to  make 
every  detail  symbolic ;  the  names  Gomer  and  Diblaim 
are  apparently  those  of  real  persons  ;  every  attempt  to 
attach  a  symbolic  value  to  them  has  failed. 

She  was,  therefore,  no  dream,  this  woman,  but  flesh 
and  blood :  the  sorrow,  the  despair,  the  sphinx  of  the 


*  Do  not  belong  to  you ;  but  the  /  aw,  n^1i<,  recalls  the  /  am  thai 
I  am  of  £xodu3. 


Hos.i.-ni.]    THE  STORY  OF  THE  PRODIGAL  WIFE  237 


prophet's  life  ;  yet  a  sphinx  who  in  the  end  3'ielded 
her  riddle  to  love. 

Accordingly  a  large  number  of  other  interpreters 
have  taken  the  story  throughout  as  the  literal  account 
of  actual  facts.  This  is  the  theory  of  many  of  the 
Latin  and  Greek  Fathers/  of  many  of  the  Puritans 
and  of  Dr.  Pusey — by  one  of  those  agreements  into 
which,  from  such  opposite  schools,  all  these  commenta- 
tors aue  not  infrequently  drawn  by  their  common 
captivity  to  the  letter  of  Scripture.*  When  you  ask 
them,  How  then  do  you  justify  that  first  strange  word 
of  God  to  Hosea,'  if  you  take  it  literally  and  believe 
that  Hosea  was  charged  to  marry  a  woman  of  public 
shame  ?  they  answer  either  that  such  an  evil  may  be 
justified  by  the  bare  word  of  God,  or  that  it  was  well 
worth  the  end,  the  salvation  of  a  lost  soul.*  And 
indeed  this  tragedy  would  be  invested  with  an  even 
greater  pathos  if  it  were  true  that  the  human  hero 
had  passed  through  a  self-sacrifice  so  unusual,  had 
incurred  such  a  shame  for  such  an  end.  The  in- 
terpretation, however,  seems  forbidden  by  the  essence 
of  the  story.  Had  not  Hosea's  wife  been  pure  when 
he  married  her  she  could  not  have  served  as  a  type 
of  the  Israel  whose  eariiest  relations  to  Jehovah  he 
describes  as  innocent.  And  this  is  confirmed  by  other 
features  of  the  book :  by  the  high  ideal  which  Hosea 
has  of  marriage,  and  by  that  sense  of  early  goodness 

*  Augustine,  Ambrose,  Theodoret,  Cyril  Alex,  and  Theodore  o( 
Mopsuestia, 

*  It  is  interesting  to  read  in  parallel  the  interpretations  of  Matthew 
Henry  and  Dr.  Pusey.  They  are  very  alike,  but  the  latter  has  the 
more  delicate  taste  of  his  age. 

■  i.  2. 

*  The  former  if  Matthew  Henry's ;  the  latter  seems  to  be  implied 
by  Pusey. 


«38 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


and  early  beauty  passing  away  like  morning  mist, 
which  is  so  often  and  so  pathetically  expressed  that 
we  cannot  but  catch  in  it  the  echo  of  his  own  ex- 
perience. As  one  has  said  to  whom  we  owe,  more  than 
to  any  other,  the  exposition  of  the  gospel  in  Hosea/ 
"  The  struggle  of  Hosea's  shame  and  grief  when  he 
found  his  wife  unfaithful  is  altogether  inconceivable 
unless  his  first  love  had  been  pure  and  full  of  trust 
in  the  purity  of  its  object." 

How  then  are  we  to  reconcile  with  this  the  state- 
ment of  that  command  to  take  a  wife  of  the  character 
so  frankly  described  ?  In  this  way — and  we  owe  the 
interpretation  to  the  same  lamented  scholar.^  When, 
some  years  after  his  marriage,  Hosea  at  last  began 
to  be  aware  of  the  character  of  her  whom  he  had 
taken  to  his  home,  and  while  he  still  brooded  upon 
it,  God  revealed  to  him  why  He  who  knoweth  all 
things  from  the  beginning  had  suffered  His  servant 
to  marry  such  a  woman  ;  and  Hosea,  by  a  very  natural 
anticipation,  in  which  he  is  imitated  by  other  prophets,' 
pushed  back  his  own  knowledge  of  God's  purpose 
to  the  date  when  that  purpose  began  actually  to  be 
fulfilled,  the  day  of  his  betrothal.  This,  though  he 
was  all  unconscious  of  its  fatal  future,  had  been  to 


'  Robertson  Smith,  Prophets  of  Israel, 

'  Apparently  it  was  W.  R.  Smith's  interpretation  which  caused 
Kuenen  to  give  up  the  allegorical  theory. 

*  Two  instances  are  usually  quoted.  The  one  is  Isaiah  vi.,  where 
most  are  agreed  that  what  Isaiah  has  stated  there  as  his  inaugural 
vision  is  not  only  what  happened  in  the  earliest  moments  of  his 
prophetic  life,  but  this  spelt  out  and  emphasised  by  his  experience 
since.  See  Isaiah  I.—XXXIX,  (Exp.  Bible),  pp.  57  f.  The  other 
instance  is  Jeremiah  xxxii.  8,  where  the  prophet  tells  us  that  he 
became  convinced  that  the  Lord  spoke  to  him  on  a  certain  occasiop 
pnly  af^er  a  subsequent  event  proved  this  to  be  CMie, 


Hos.UUi.]   THE  STORY  OF  THE  PRODIGAL  WIFE  rj9 


Hosea  the  beginning  of  the  word  of  the  Lord.  On 
that  uncertain  voyage  he  had  sailed  with  sealed 
orders. 

Now  this  is  true  to  nature,  and  may  be  matched 
from  our  own  experience.  ''The  beginning  of  God's 
word "  to  any  of  us — where  does  it  lie  ?  Does  it 
lie  in  ^.he  first  time  the  meaning  of  our  life  became 
articulate,  and  we  were  able  to  utter  it  to  others  ?  All 
no ;  it  always  lies  far  behind  that,  in  facts  and  in 
relationships,  of  the  Divine  meaning  of  which  we  are 
at  the  time  unconscious,  though  now  we  know.  How 
familiar  this  is  in  respect  to  the  sorrows  and  adversities 
of  life  :  dumb,  deadening  things  that  fall  on  us  at  the 
time  with  no  more  voice  than  clods  falling  on  coffins 
of  dead  men,  we  have  been  able  to  read  them  after- 
wards as  the  clear  call  of  God  to  our  souls.  But  what 
we  thus  so  readily  admit  about  the  sorrows  of  Hfe  may 
be  equally  true  of  any  of  those  relations  which  we 
enter  with  light  and  unawed  hearts,  conscious  only  of 
the  novelty  and  the  joy  of  them.  It  is  most  true  of 
the  love  which  meets  a  man  as  it  met  Hosea  in  his 
opening  manhood. 

How  long  Hosea  took  to  discover  his  shame  he 
indicates  by  a  few  hints  which  he  suffers  to  break  from 
the  dehcate  reserve  of  his  story.  He  calls  the  first 
child  his  own  ;  and  the  boy's  name,  though  ominous  of 
the  nation's  fate,  has  no  trace  of  shame  upon  it.  Hosea's 
Jezreel  was  as  Isaiah's  Shear-Jashub  or  Maher-shalal- 
hash-baz.  But  Hosea  does  not  claim  the  second  child ; 
and  in  the  name  of  this  little  lass,  Lo-Ruhamah,  she^ 
that-never-knew-a-father^S'-lovej  orphan  not  by  death 
but  by  her  mother's  sin,  we  find  proof  of  the  prcph<£t*s 
awakening  to  the  tragedy  of  his  home.  Nor  does  he 
own  the  third  child,  named  Not-my-people^  that  coulJ 


140 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


also  mean  No-kin-of-mine.  The  three  births  must  have 
taken  at  least  six  years  ;  ^  and  once  at  least,  but  pro- 
bably oftener,  Hosea  had  forgiven  the  woman,  and  til! 
the  sixth  year  she  stayed  in  his  house.  Then  either 
he  put  her  from  him,  or  she  went  her  own  way.  She 
sold  herself  for  money,  and  finally  drifted,  like  all  of 
her  class,  into  slavery.* 

Such  were  the  facts  of  Hosea's  grief,  and  we  have 
now  to  attempt  to  understand  how  that  grief  became 
his  gospel.  We  may  regard  the  stages  of  the  process 
as  two :  first,  when  he  was  led  to  feel  that  his  sorrow 
was  the  sorrow  of  the  whole  nation  ;  and,  second,  when 
he  comprehended  that  it  was  of  similar  kind  to  the 
sorrow  of  God  Himself. 

While  Hosea  brooded  upon  his  pain  one  of  the  first 
things  he  would  remember  would  be  the  fact,  which  he 
so  frequently  illustrates,  that  the  case  of  his  home  was 
not  singular,  but  common  and  characteristic  of  his 
day.  Take  the  evidence  of  his  book,  and  there  must 
have  been  in  Israel  many  such  wives  as  his  own.  He 
describes  their  sin  as  the  besetting  sin  of  the  nation, 
and  the  plague  of  Israelis  life.  But  to  lose  your  own 
sorrow  in  the  vaster  sense  of  national  trouble — that 
is  the  first  consciousness  of  a  duty  and  a  mission.  In 
the  analogous  vice  of  intemperance  among  ourselves 
we  have  seen  the  same  experience  operate  again  and 
again.  How  many  a  man  has  joined  the  public  war- 
fare against  that  sin,  because  he  was  aroused  to  its 
national  consequences  by  the  ruin  it  had  brought  to 
his  own  home  I  And  one  remembers  from  recent  years 
a  more  illustrious  instance,  where  a  domestic  grief — 


"  An  Eastern  woman  seldom  weans  her  child  before  the  end  of  its 
second  year.  '  iii.  a. 


Hos.i.-iii.]    THE  STORY  OF  THE  PRODIGAL  WIFE 


241 


it  is  true  of  a  very  different  kind — became  not  dis- 
similarly the  opening  of  a  great  career  of  service  to 
the  people : — 

"  I  was  in  Leamington,  and  Mr.  Cobden  called  on  me.  I  was 
then  in  the  depths  of  grief — I  may  almost  say  of  despair,  for  the 
light  and  sunshine  of  my  house  had  been  extinguished.  All  that 
was  left  on  earth  of  my  young  wife,  except  the  memory  of  a 
sainted  life  and  a  too  brief  happiness,  was  lying  still  and  cold  in 
the  chamber  above  us.  Mr.  Cobden  called  on  me  as  his  friend, 
and  addressed  me,  as  you  may  suppose,  with  words  of  con- 
dolence. After  a  time  he  looked  up  and  said :  '  There  are  thou- 
sands and  thousands  of  homes  in  England  at  this  moment  where 
wives  and  mothers  and  children  are  dying  of  hunger.  Now, 
when  the  first  paroxysm  of  your  grief  is  passed,  I  would  advise 
you  to  come  with  me,  and  we  will  never  rest  until  the  Corn  Laws 
are  repealed.' "  * 

Not  dissimilarly  was  Hosea's  pain  overwhelmed  by 
the  pain  of  his  people.  He  remembered  that  there 
were  in  Israel  thousands  of  homes  like  his  own. 
Anguish  gave  way  to  sympathy.  The  mystery  became 
the  stimulus  to  a  mission. 

But,  again,  Hosea  traces  this  sin  of  his  day  to  the 
worship  of  strange  gods.  He  tells  the  fathers  of  Israel, 
for  instance,  that  they  need  not  be  surprised  at  the 
corruption  of  their  wives  and  daughters  when  they 
themselves  bring  home  from  the  heathen  rites  the 
infection  of  light  views  of  love.*  That  is  to  say,  the 
many  sins  against  human  love  in  Israel,  the  wrong 
done  to  his  own  heart  in  his  own  home,  Hosea  connects 
with  the  wrong  done  to  the  Love  of  God,  by  His 
people's  desertion  of  Him  for  foreign  and  impure  rites. 
Hosea's  own  sorrow  thus  became  a  key  to  the  sorrow 
of  God.    Had  he  loved  this  woman,  cherished  and 


*  From  a  speech  by  John  Bright.  *  iv.  13,  14. 

VOL.  I.  16 


242 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


honoured  her,  borne  with  and  forgiven  her,  only  to 
find  at  the  last  his  love  spurned  and  hers  turned  to 
sinful  men  :  so  also  had  the  Love  of  God  been  treated 
by  His  chosen  people,  and  they  had  fallen  to  the  loose 
worship  of  idols. 

Hosea  was  the  more  naturally  led  to  compare  his 
relations  to  his  wife  with  Jehovah's  to  Israel,  by 
certain  religious  beliefs  current  among  the  Semitic 
peoples.  It  was  common  to  nearly  all  Semitic  religions 
to  express  the  union  of  a  god  with  his  land  or  with  his 
people  by  the  figure  of  marriage.  The  title  which 
Hosea  so  often  applies  to  the  heathen  deities,  Ba'al, 
meant  originally  not  "  lord  "  of  his  worshippers,  but 

possessor  "  and  endower  of  his  land,  its  husband  and 
fertiliser.    A  fertile  land  was  ''a  land  of  Ba^al,''  or 

Be  ulah,"  that  is,  ''possessed"  or  "  blessed  by  a  Ba'al."' 
Under  the  fertility  was  counted  not  only  the  increase 
of  field  and  flock,  but  the  human  increase  as  well; 
and  thus  a  nation  could  speak  of  themselves  as  the 
children  of  the  Land,  their  mother,  and  of  her  Ba'al, 
their  father.*  When  Hosea,  then,  called  Jehovah  the 
husband  of  Israel,  it  was  not  an  entirely  new  symbol 
which  he  invented.  Up  to  his  time,  however,  the 
marriage  of  Heaven  and  Earth,  of  a  god  and  his  people, 
seems  to  have  been  conceived  in  a  physical  form  which 
ever  tended  to  become  more  gross ;  and  was  expressed, 
as  Hosea  points  out,  by  rites  of  a  sensual  and  debasing 
nature,  with  the  most  disastrous  effects  on  the  domestic 
morals  of  the  people.  By  an  inspiration,  whose  ethical 
character  is  very  conspicuous,  Hosea  breaks  the  phy- 
sical connection  altogether.    Jehovah's  Bride  is  not  the 

*  Cf.  the  spiritual  use  of  the  term,  Isa.  Ixii.  4. 

'  For  proof  and  exposition  of  all  this  see  Robertson  Smith,  Religion 
of  the  Semites,  92  ft 


Hos.l.-iii.]    THE  STORY  OF  THE  PRODIGAL  WIFE 


243 


Land,  but  the  People,  and  His  marriage  with  her  is 
conceived  wholly  as  a  moral  relation.  Not  that  He 
has  no  connection  with  the  physical  fruits  of  the  land  : 
corn,  wine,  oil,  wool  and  flax.  But  these  are  repre- 
sented only  as  the  signs  and  ornaments  of  the  marriage, 
love-gifts  from  the  husband  to  the  wife.^  The  marriage 
itself  is  purely  moral :  /  will  betroth  her  to  Me  in  right-- 
eousness  and  justice^  in  leal  love  and  tender  mercies} 
From  her  in  return  are  demanded  faithfulness  and 
growing  knowledge  of  her  Lord. 

It  is  the  re-creation  of  an  Idea.  Slain  and  made 
carrion  by  the  heathen  religions,  the  figure  is  restored 
to  life  by  Hosea.  And  this  is  a  life  everlasting. 
Prophet  and  apostle,  the  Israel  of  Jehovah,  the  Church 
of  Christ,  have  alike  found  in  Hosea's  figure  an  un- 
failing significance  and  charm.  Here  we  cannot  trace 
the  history  of  the  figure ;  but  at  least  we  ought  to 
emphasise  the  creative  power  which  its  recovery  to 
life  proves  to  have  been  inherent  in  prophecy.  This 
is  one  of  those  triumphs  of  which  the  God  of  Israel 
said  :  Behold^  I  make  all  things  new} 

Having  dug  his  figure  from  the  mire  and  set  it  upon 
the  rock,  Hosea  sends  it  on  its  way  with  all  boldness. 
If  Jehovah  be  thus  the  husband  of  Israel,  her  first 
husband^  the  husband  of  her  yotithy  then  all  her  pursuit 
of  the  Ba'alim  is  unfaithfulness  to  her  marriage  vows. 
But  she  is  worse  than  an  adulteress;  she  is  a  harlot.  She 
has  fallen  for  gifts.    Here  the  historical  facts  wonder- 


»  ii.  8. 

•  So  best  is  rendered  ^D^,  hesedh,  which  means  always  not  merely 
an  affi  ction,  "  lovingkindness,"  as  our  version  puts  it,  but  a  relation 
loyally  observed. 

^  An  expansion  of  this  will  be  found  in  the  present  writer*! 
Uaiah  XU—LXVI,  (Expositor's  Bible  Series),  pp.  398  flC 


244 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


fully  assisted  the  prophet's  metaphor.  It  was  a  fact 
that  Israel  and  Jehovah  were  first  wedded  in  the 
wilderness  upon  conditions,  which  by  the  very  circum- 
stances of  desert  life  could  have  little  or  no  reference 
to  the  fertility  of  the  earth,  but  were  purely  personal 
and  moral.  And  it  was  also  a  fact  that  Israel's  declen- 
sion from  Jehovah  came  after  her  settlement  in  Canaan, 
and  was  due  to  her  discovery  of  other  deities,  in  pos- 
session of  the  soil,  and  adored  by  the  natives  as  the 
dispensers  of  its  fertility.  Israel  fell  under  these 
superstitions,  and,  although  she  still  formally  acknow- 
ledged her  bond  to  Jehovah,  yet  in  order  to  get  her 
fields  blessed  and  her  flocks  made  fertile,  her  orchards 
protected  from  blight  and  her  fleeces  from  scab,  she 
went  after  the  local  Ba'alim.^  With  bitter  scorn  Hosea 
points  out  that  there  was  no  true  love  in  this :  it  was 
the  mercenariness  of  a  harlot,  selling  herself  for  gifts.^ 
And  it  had  the  usual  results.  The  children  whom 
Israel  bore  were  not  her  husband's.'  The  new  gene- 
ration in  Isi  ael  grew  up  in  ignorance  of  Jehovah,  with 
characters  and  lives  strange  to  His  Spirit.  They  were 
Lo-Ruhamah :  He  could  not  feel  towards  them  such 
pity  as  a  father  hath.*  They  were  Lo-Ammi  :  not  at 
all  His  people.  All  was  in  exact  parallel  to  Hosea's 
own  experience  with  his  wife  ;  and  only  the  real  pain 
of  that  experience  could  have  made  the  man  brave 
enough  to  use  it  as  a  figure  of  his  God's  treatment 
by  Israel. 

Following  out  the  human  analogy,  the  next  step 
should  have  been  for  Jehovah  to  divorce  His  erring 
spouse.  But  Jehovah  reveals  to  the  prophet  that  this 
is  not  His  way.    For  He  is  God  and  not  many  the  Holy 


*  ii.  IJ,         *  ii.  5,  13.         ■  ii,  5.         •  See  above,  p.  235. 


Hos.i.-iii.]    THE  STORY  OF  THE  PRODIGAL  WIFE  245 


One  in  the  midst  of  thee.  How  shall  I  give  thee  upy 
Ephraim  ?  How  shall  I  surrender  thee^  O  Israel  ?  My 
heart  is  turned  within  Me,  My  compassions  are  kindled 
together  ! 

Jehovah  will  seek,  find  and  bring  back  the  wanderer. 
Yet  the  process  shall  not  be  easy.  The  gospel  which 
Hosea  here  preaches  is  matched  in  its  great  tender- 
ness by  its  full  recognition  of  the  ethical  requirements 
of  the  case.  Israel  may  not  be  restored  without 
repentance,  and  cannot  repent  without  disillusion  and 
chastisement.  God  will  therefore  show  her  that  her 
lovers,  the  Ba'alim,  are  unable  to  assure  to  her  the  gifts 
for  which  she  followed  them.  These  are  His  corn,  His 
wine,  His  wool  and  His  flax,  and  He  will  take  them 
away  for  a  time.  Nay  more,  as  if  mere  drought  and 
blight  might  still  be  regarded  as  some  Ba'aFs  work, 
He  who  has  always  manifested  Himself  by  great  historic 
deeds  will  do  so  again.  He  will  remove  herself  from 
the  land,  and  leave  it  a  waste  and  a  desolation.  The 
whole  passage  runs  as  follows,  introduced  by  the  initial 
Therefore  of  judgment : — 

Therefore,  behold,  I  am  going  to  hedge  ^  up  her^  way 
with  thorns,  and  build  her  ^  a  wall^  so  that  she  find  not  her 
paths.  And  she  shall  pursue  her  paramours  and  shall 
not  come  upon  them,  seek  them  and  shall  not  find  them; 
and  she  shall  say,  Let  me  go  and  return  to  my  first 
husband,  for  it  was  better  for  me  then  than  now.  She 
knew  not,  then,  that  it  was  I  who  gave  her  the  corn  and 
the  wine  and  the  oil ;  yea,  silver  I  heaped  upon  her  and 

*  The  participle  Qal,  used  by  God  of  Himself  in  His  proclamations 
of  grace  or  of  punishment,  has  in  this  passage  (cf.  ver.  16)  and  else- 
where (especially  in  Deuteronomy)  the  force  of  an  immediate  future 

«  So  LXX. ;  Mass.  Text,  thy. 

•  The  reading  H^n^  is  more  probable  than  '"TJ*]!^. 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


gold — they  worked  it  up  for  the  Baall^  Israel  had 
deserted  the  religion  that  was  historical  and  moral  for 
the  religion  that  was  physical.  But  the  historical 
religion  was  the  physical  one.  Jehovah  who  had 
brought  Israel  to  the  land  was  also  the  God  of  the  Land. 
He  would  prove  this  by  taking  away  its  blessings. 
Therefore  I  will  turn  and  take  away  My  corn  in  its  time 
and  My  wine  in  its  season,  and  I  will  withdraw  My  wool 
and  My  flax  that  should  have  covered  her  nakedness. 
And  now — the  other  initial  of  judgment — I  will  lay  bare 
her  shame  to  the  eyes  of  her  lovers,  and  no  man  shall 
rescue  her  from  My  hand.  And  I  will  make  an  end  of 
all  her  joyaunce,  her  pilgrimages,  her  New-Moons  and  her 
Sabbaths,  with  every  festival;  and  I  will  destroy  her  vines 
and  her  figs  of  which  she  said,  They  are  a  gift,  mine 
own,  which  my  lovers  gave  me^^  and  I  will  turn  them  to 
jungle  and  the  wild  beast  shall  devour  them.  So  shall 
I  visit  upon  her  the  days  of  the  Baalim,  when  she  used  to 
offer  incense  to  them,  and  decked  herself  with  her  rings 
and  her  jewels  and  went  after  her  paramours,  but  Me 
she  forgat — His  the  oracle  of  Jehovah,  All  this  implies 
something  more  than  such  natural  disasters  as  those  in 
which  Amos  saw  the  first  chastisements  of  the  Lord. 
Each  of  the  verses  suggests,  not  only  a  devastation  of 
the  land  by  war,^  but  the  removal  of  the  people  into 
captivity.    Evidently,  therefore,  Hosea,  writing  about 

*  Or  thiy  made  it  into  a  Baal  image.  So  Ew.,  Hitz.,  Nowack. 
But  Wellhausen  omits  the  clause. 

^  Wellhausen  thinks  that  up  to  ver.  14  only  physical  calamities  are 
meant,  but  the  in^^H  of  ver.  II,  as  well  as  others  of  the  terms  used, 
imply  not  the  blighting  of  crops  before  their  season,  but  the  carrying 
of  them  away  in  their  season,  when  the^^  had  fully  ripened,  by 
invaders.  The  cessation  of  all  worship  points  to  the  removal  of  the 
people  from  their  land,  which  is  also  implied,  of  course,  by  the 
promise  that  they  shall  be  sown  again  in  ver.  23. 


Hos.i.-iii.]    THE  STORY  OF  THE  PRODIGAL  WIFE  247 


745,  had  in  view  a  speedy  invasion  by  Assyria,  an 
invasion  which  was  always  followed  up  by  the  exile 
of  the  people  subdued. 

This  is  next  described,  with  all  plainness,  under  the 
figure  of  Israel's  early  wanderings  in  the  wilderness, 
but  is  emphasised  as  happening  only  for  the  end  of  the 
people's  penitence  and  restoration.  The  new  hope  is 
so  melodious  that  it  carries  the  language  into  metre. 
Therefore^  lo  !  I  am  to  woo  her^  and  I  will  bring  her  to 

the  wilderness^ 
And  I  will  speak  home  to  her  heart. 
And  from  there  I  will  give  to  her  her  vineyards^ 
And  the  Valley  of  Achor  for  a  doorway  of  hope. 
And  there  she  shall  answer  Me  as  in  the  days  of  her 
youthy 

And  as  the  day  when  she  came  up  from  the  land  of 

Misraim, 

To  us  the  terms  of  this  passage  may  seem  formal 
and  theological.  But  to  every  Israelite  some  of  these 
terms  must  have  brought  back  the  days  of  his  own 
w^ooing.  /  will  speak  home  to  her  heart  is  a  forcible 
expression,  like  the  German  **an  das  Herz*'  or  the 
sweet  Scottish  it  cam'  up  roond  my  heart,"  and  was 
used  in  Israel  as  from  man  to  woman  when  he  won 
her.*  But  the  other  terms  have  an  equal  charm. 
The  prophet,  of  course,  does  not  mean  that  Israel 
shall  be  literally  taken  back  to  the  desert.  But  he 
describes  her  coming  Exile  under  that  ancient  figure, 
in  order  to  surround  her  penitence  with  the  associations 
of  her  innocency  and  her  youth.    By  the  grace  of  God, 


*  Cf.  Isa.  xl.  I  :  which  to  the  same  exiled  Israel  is  the  fulfilment  oi 
the  promise  made  by  Hosea.  Sec  Isaiah  XL, — LXVI.  (Expositor*! 
Bible),  pp.  75  ff. 


248 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


everything  shall  begin  again  a?  at  first.  The  old  terms 
wilderness^  the  giving  of  vineyards^  Valley  of  Achor^  are, 
as  it  were,  the  wedding  ring  restored. 

As  a  result  of  all  this  (whether  the  words  be  by 
Hosea  or  another),^ 

//  shall  be  in  that  day — V/5  Jehovah! s  oracle — that  thou 
shalt  call  Me^  My  husband^ 

And  thou  shalt  not  again  call  Mcy  My  Baal : 

For  I  will  take  away  the  names  of  the  Baalim  from 
her  mouthy 

And  they  shall  no  more  be  remembered  by  their  names. 
There  follows  a  picture  of  the  ideal  future,  in  which — 
how  unlike  the  vision  that  now  closes  the  Book  of 
Amos ! — moral  and  spiritual  beauty,  the  peace  of  the 
land  and  the  redemption  of  the  people,  are  wonderfully 
liungled  together,  in  a  style  so  characteristic  of  Hosea's 
heart.  It  is  hard  to  tell  where  the  rhythmical  prose 
passes  into  actual  metre. 

And  I  will  make  for  them  a  covenant  in  that  day  with 
the  wild  beastSy  and  with  the  birds  of  the  heavens^  and 
with  the  creeping  things  of  the  ground;  and  the  bow  and 
the  sword  and  battle  will  I  break  from  the  landy  and  I  will 
make  you  to  dwell  in  safety.  And  I  will  betroth  thee  to 
Me  for  every  and  I  will  betroth  thee  to  Me  in  righteousness 
and  in  justice  y  in  leal  love  and  in  tender  mercies;  and  I 
will  betroth  thee  to  Me  in  faithfulnesSy  and  thou  shalt  know 
Jehovah, 

And  it  shall  be  on  that  day  I  will  speak — His  the  oracle 
of  Jehovah — /  will  speak  to  the  heavens y  and  they  shall 
speak  to  the  earth ;  and  the  earth  shall  speak  to  the  corn 
and  the  wine  and  the  oily  and  they  shall  speak  to  Jezreely 
the  scattered  like  seed  across  many  lands  ;  but  I  will  sow 


'  Wellhausen  calls  ver.  18  a  gloss  to  vcr.  19^ 


Hos.l.-iii.]    THE  STORY  OF  THE  PRODIGAL  WIFE  249 


him^  for  Myself  in  the  land :  and  I  will  have  a  father^  s 
pity  upon  Un-Pitied;  and  to  Not-My-People  I  will  say^ 
My  people  thou  art !  and  he  shall  say,  My  Godt^ 

The  circle  is  thus  completed  on  the  terms  from  which 
we  started.  The  three  names  which  Hosea  gave  to 
the  children,  evil  omens  of  Israers  fate,  are  reversed, 
and  the  people  restored  to  the  favour  and  love  of  their 
God. 

We  might  expect  this  glory  to  form  the  culmination 
of  the  prophecy.  What  fuller  prospect  could  be 
imagined  than  that  we  see  in  the  close  of  the  second 
chapter  ?  With  a  wonderful  grace,  however,  the  pro- 
phecy turns  back  from  this  sure  vision  of  the  restoration 
of  the  people  as  a  whole,  to  pick  up  again  the  individual 
from  whom  it  had  started,  and  whose  unclean  rag  of 
a  life  had  fluttered  out  of  sight  before  the  national 
fortunes  sweeping  in  upon  the  scene.  This  was 
needed  to  crown  the  story — this  return  to  the 
individual. 

And  Jehovah  said  unto  me,  Once  more  go,  love  a  wife 
that  is  loved  of  a  paramour  and  is  an  adulteress,^  as 
Jehovah  loveth  the  children  of  Israel,  the  while  they  are 
turning  to  other  gods,  and  love  raisin-cakes — probably 

'  Massoretic  Text,  her, 

•  It  is  at  this  point,  if  at  any,  that  i.  lO,  II,  ii.  I  (Eng.,  but  ii.  1-3  Heb.) 
ought  to  come  in.  It  will  be  observed,  however,  that  even  here  they 
are  superfluous :  And  the  number  of  the  children  of  Israel  shall  be  as 
the  sand  of  the  sea^  which  cannot  be  measured  nor  counted ;  and  it  shall 
be  in  the  place  where  it  was  said  to  them,  No  People  of  Mine  are  ye  I  it 
shall  be  said  to  them,  Sons  of  the  Living  God  I  And  the  children  of 
Judah  and  the  children  of  Israel  shall  be  gathered  together,  and  they  shall 
appoint  themselves  one  head,  and  shall  go  up  from  the  land :  for  great  is 
the  day  of  Jezreel.  Say  unto  your  brothers,  My  People,  and  to  your 
sisters  (LXX.  sister),  She-is-Pitied.  On  the  whole  passage  sec 
above,  p.  213. 

■  Or  that  is  loved  of  her  husband  though  an  adultereat. 


250 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


some  element  in  the  feasts  of  the  gods  of  the  land,  the 
givers  of  the  grape.  Then  I  bought  her  to  me  Jor  fifteen 
pieces  of  stiver  and  a  homer  of  barley  and  a  lethech  oj 
wine}  And  I  said  to  her^  For  many  days  shalt  thou 
abide  for  me  alone;  thou  shalt  not  play  the  harlot  y  thou 
shalt  not  be  for  any  husband;  and  I  for  my  part  also 
shall  be  so  towards  thee.  For  the  days  are  many  that 
the  children  of  Israel  shall  abide  without  a  king  and 
without  a  prince^  without  sacrifice  and  without  ma^gebah^ 
and  without  ephod  and  teraphim?  Afterwards  the  children 
of  Israel  shall  turn  and  seek  Jehovah  their  God  and 
David  their  king^  and  shall  be  in  awe  of  Jehovah  and 
towards  His  goodness  in  the  end  of  the  days} 

Do  not  let  us  miss  the  fact  that  the  story  ot  the 
wife's  restoration  follows  that  of  Israel's,  although  the 
story  of  the  wife's  unfaithfulness  had  come  before  that 
of  Israel's  apostasy.  For  this  order  means  that,  while 
the  prophet's  private  pain  preceded  his  sympathy  with 
God's  pain,  it  was  not  he  who  set  God,  but  God  who 
set  him,  the  example  of  forgiveness.  The  man  learned 
the  God's  sorrow  out  of  his  own  sorrow ;  but  conversely 
he  was  taught  to  forgive  and  redeem  his  wife  only  by 
seeing  God  forgive  and  redeem  the  people.  In  other 
words,  the  Divine  was  suggested  by  the  human  pain ; 
yet  the  Divine  Grace  was  not  started  by  any  previous 
human  grace,  but,  on  the  contrary,  was  itself  the  pre- 
cedent and  origin  of  the  latter.  This  is  in  harmony 
with  all  Hosea's  teaching.  God  forgives  because  He  is 
God  and  not  man}    Our  pain  with  those  we  love  helps 


'  So  LXX.  The  homer  was  eight  bushels.  The  lethech  is  a 
measure  not  elsewhere  mentioned. 

'  On  these  see  above,  Introduction,  Chap.  III.,  p.  38, 
'  On  the  text  see  above,  p.  214.  ^  xi.  9. 


Hos.  i.-iii.J    THE  STORY  OF  THE  PRODIGAL  WIFE  251 


US  to  understand  God's  pain  ;  but  it  is  not  our  love 
that  leads  us  to  believe  in  His  love.  On  the  contrary, 
all  human  grace  is  but  the  reflex  of  the  Divine.  So 
St.  Paul :  Even  as  Christ  forgave  you,  so  also  do  ye. 
So  St.  John :  We  love  Him,  and  one  another,  because 
He  first  loved  us. 

But  this  return  from  the  nation  to  the  individual  has 
another  interest.  Comer's  redemption  is  not  the  mere 
formal  completion  of  the  parallel  between  her  and  her 
people.  It  is,  as  the  story  says,  an  impulse  of  the 
Divine  Love,  recognised  even  then  in  Israel  as  seeking 
the  individual.  He  who  follow^ed  Hagar  into  the 
wilderness,  who  met  Jacob  at  Bethel  and  forgat  not 
the  slave  Joseph  in  prison,^  remembers  also  Hosea's 
wife.  His  love  is  not  satisfied  with  His  Nation-Bride : 
He  remembers  this  single  outcast.  It  is  the  Shepherd 
leaving  the  ninety-and-nine  in  the  fold  to  seek  the  one 
lost  sheep. 


For  Hosea  himself  his  home  could  never  be  the  same 
as  it  was  at  the  first.  And  I  said  to  her.  For  many  days 
shalt  thou  abide,  as  far  as  I  am  concerned,  alone.  Thou 
shalt  not  play  the  harlot.  Thou  shalt  not  be  for  a 
husband:  and  I  on  my  side  also  shall  be  so  towards  thee. 
Discipline  was  needed  there ;  and  abroad  the  nation's 
troubles  called  the  prophet  to  an  anguish  and  a  toil 
which  left  no  room  for  the  sweet  love  or  hope  of  his 
youth.  He  steps  at  once  to  his  hard  warfare  for 
his  people  ;  and  through  the  rest  of  his  book  we  never 
again  hear  him  speak  of  home,  or  of  children,  or  of 


*  As  the  stories  all  written  down  before  this  had  made  familiar  to 
Israel. 


25S 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


wife.  So  Arthur  passed  from  Guinevere  to  his  last 
battle  for  his  land  : — 

"Lol  I  forgive  thee,  as  Eternal  God 
Forgives  :  do  thou  for  thine  own  soul  the  rest. 
But  how  to  take  last  leave  of  all  I  loved? 

•  •  «  ♦  # 

I  cannot  touch  thy  lips,  they  are  not  mine  ;  •  •  • 

I  cannot  take  thy  hand ;  that  too  is  flesh, 

And  in  the  flesh  thou  hast  sinned ;  and  mine  own  flesk| 

Here  looking  down  on  thine  polluted,  cries 

*  I  loathe  thee ' ;  yet  not  less,  O  Guinevere, 

For  I  was  ever  virgin  save  for  thee, 

My  love  thro'  flesh  hath  wrought  into  my  lite 

So  far,  that  my  doom  is,  I  love  thee  still. 

Let  no  man  dream  but  that  I  love  thee  stilL 

Perchance,  and  so  thou  purify  thy  soul, 

And  so  thou  lean  on  our  fair  father  Christ, 

Hereafter  in  that  world  where  all  are  pure 

We  two  may  meet  before  high  God,  and  thou 

Wilt  spring  to  me,  and  claim  me  thine,  and  know 

I  am  thine  husband,  not  a  smaller  soul.  .  ,  . 

Leave  me  that, 
I  charge  thee,  my  last  hope.    Now  must  I  henotti 
Tbro'  the  thick  night  I  hear  the  truno.pet  blow.** 


CHAPTER  XV 


THE  THICK  NIGHT  OF  ISRAEL 
HosEA  iv. — xiv. 

IT  was  indeed  a  thick  night  "  into  which  this  Arthur 
of  Israel  stepped  from  his  shattered  home.  The 
mists  drive  across  Hosea^s  long  agony  with  his  people, 
and  what  we  see,  we  see  blurred  and  broken.  There 
is  stumbling  and  clashing ;  crowds  in  drift ;  confused 
rallies ;  gangs  of  assassins  breaking  across  the  high- 
ways ;  doors  opening  upon  lurid  interiors  full  of 
drunken  riot.  Voices,  which  other  voices  mock,  cry 
for  a  dawn  that  never  comes.  God  Himself  is  Laughter, 
Lightning,  a  Lion,  a  Gnawing  Worm.  Only  one  clear 
note  breaks  over  the  confusion — the  trumpet  summon- 
ing to  war. 

Take  courage,  O  great  heart  I  Not  thus  shall  it 
always  be  I  There  wait  thee,  before  the  end,  of  open 
Visions  at  least  two — one  of  Memory  and  one  of  Hope, 
one  of  Childhood  and  one  of  Spring.  Past  this  night, 
past  the  swamp  and  jungle  of  these  fetid  years,  thou 
shalt  see  thy  land  in  her  beauty,  and  God  shall  look 
on  the  face  of  His  Bride. 


Chaps,  iv. — xiv.  are  almost  indivisible.  The  two 
Visions  just  mentioned,  chaps,  xi.  and  xiv.  3-9,  may 

253 


254 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


be  detached  by  virtue  of  contributing  the  only  strains 
of  gospel  which  rise  victorious  above  the  Lord's  con- 
troversy with  His  people  and  the  troubled  story  of 
their  sins.  All  the  rest  is  the  noise  of  a  nation  falling 
to  pieces,  the  crumbling  of  a  splendid  past.  And  as 
decay  has  no  climax  and  ruin  no  rhythm,  so  we  may 
understand  why  it  is  impossible  to  divide  with  any 
certainty  Hosea's  record  of  Israel's  fall.  Some  arrange- 
ment we  must  attempt,  but  it  is  more  or  less  artificial, 
and  to  be  undertaken  for  the  sake  of  our  own  minds, 
that  cannot  grasp  so  great  a  collapse  all  at  once. 
Chap.  iv.  has  a  certain  unity,  and  is  followed  by  a 
new  exordium,  but  as  it  forms  only  the  theme  of  which 
the  subsequent  chapters  are  variations,  we  may  take 
it  with  them  as  far  as  chap,  vii.,  ver.  7 ;  after  which 
there  is  a  slight  transition  from  the  moral  signs  of 
Israel's  dissolution  to  the  political — although  Hosea 
still  combines  the  religious  offence  of  idolatry  with 
the  anarchy  of  the  land.  These  form  the  chief  interest 
to  the  end  of  chap.  x.  Then  breaks  the  bright  Vision 
of  the  Past,  chap,  xi.,  the  temporary  victory  of  the 
Gospel  of  the  Prophet  over  his  Curse.  In  chaps,  xii. — 
xiv.  2  we  are  plunged  into  the  latter  once  more,  and 
reach  in  xiv.  3  fF.  the  second  bright  Vision,  the  Vision  of 
the  Future.  To  each  of  these  phases  of  Israel's  Thick 
Night — we  can  hardly  call  them  Sections— we  may 
devote  a  chapter  of  simple  exposition,  adding  three 
chapters  more  of  detailed  examination  of  the  main 
doctrines  we  shall  have  encountered  on  our  way — the 
Knowledge  of  God,  Repentance,  and  the  Sin  against 
Love, 


CHAPTER  XVI 

A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY:  L  MORALLY 
HosEA  iv. — vii.  7, 

PURSUING  the  plan  laid  down  in  the  last  chapter, 
we  now  take  the  section  of  Hosea's  discourse 
which  lies  between  chap.  iv.  i  and  chap.  vii.  7. 
Chap.  iv.  is  the  only  really  separable  bit  of  it ;  but 
there  are  also  slight  breaks  at  v.  15  and  vii.  2.  So  we 
may  attempt  a  division  into  four  periods :  i.  Chap,  iv., 
which  states  God's  general  charge  against  the  people ; 
2.  Chap.  V.  1-14,  which  discusses  the  priests  and 
princes ;  3.  Chaps,  v.  1 5 — vii.  2,  which  abjures  the 
people's  attempts  at  repentance ;  and  4.  Chap.  vii.  3-7, 
which  is  a  lurid  spectacle  of  the  drunken  and  profli- 
gate court.  All  these  give  symptoms  of  the  moral 
decay  of  the  people, — the  family  destroyed  by  impurity, 
and  society  by  theft  and  murder ;  the  corruption  of  the 
spiritual  guides  of  the  people  ;  the  debauchery  of  the 
nobles;  the  sympathy  of  the  throne  with  evil, — with 
the  despairing  judgment  that  such  a  people  are  incap- 
able even  of  repentance.  The  kej^notes  are  these  : 
No  troth,  leal  love,  nor  knowledge  of  God  in  the  land. 
Priest  and  Prophet  stumble,  Ephraim  and  Judah 
stumble,  I  am  as  the  moth  to  Ephraim,  What  can 
I  make  of  thee,  Ephraim  ?  When  I  would  heal  them, 
their  guilt  is  only  the  more  exposed.    Morallyi  Israel  is 

2SS 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


rotten.  The  prophet,  of  course,  cannot  help  adding 
signs  of  their  poHtical  incoherence.  But  these  he  deals 
with  more  especially  in  the  part  of  his  discourse  which 
follows  chap.  vii.  7. 

I.  The  Lord's  Quarrel  with  Israel. 

HosEA  iv. 

Hear  the  word  of  Jehovah^  sons  of  Israeli^  Jehovah 
hath  a  quarrel  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  land^  for  there 
is  no  troth  nor  leal  love  nor  knowledge  of  God  in  the 
land.  Perjury^  and  murder  and  theft  and  adultery  I  ^ 
They  break  out^  and  blood  strikes  upon  blood. 

That  stable  and  well-furnished  life,  across  which, 
while  it  was  still  noon,  Amos  hurled  his  alarms — how 
quickly  it  has  broken  up  I  If  there  be  still  ease  in  Zion^ 
there  is  no  more  security  in  Samaria}  The  great 
Jeroboam  is  dead,  and  society,  which  in  the  East  de- 
pends so  much  on  the  individual,  is  loose  and  falling 
to  pieces.  The  sins  which  are  exposed  by  Amos  were 
those  that  lurked  beneath  a  still  strong  government, 
but  Hosea  adds  outbreaks  which  set  all  order  at 
defiance.  Later  we  shall  find  him  describing  house- 
breaking, highway  robbery  and  assassination.  There-- 
fore  doth  the  land  wither^  and  every  one  of  her  denizens 
langtiishethy  even  to  the  beast  of  the  field  and  the  fowl  of 
the  heaven;  yea^  even  the  fish  of  the  sea  are  swept  up 
in  the  universal  sickness  of  man  and  nature  :  for  Hosea 
feels,  like  Amos,  the  liability  of  nature  to  the  curse 
upon  sin. 

'  ^  formally  introduces  the  charge. 

•  Lit.  swearing  and  falsehood, 

•  Ninth,  sixth,  eighth  and  seventh  of  the  Decalogue. 

•  Amos  vi.  1. 


Hos.  iv.] 


A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY:  L  MORALLY 


257 


Yet  the  guilt  is  not  that  of  the  whole  people,  but 
of  their  religious  guides.  Let  none  find  fault  and  none 
upbraid^  for  My  people  are  but  as  their  priestlings}  O 
Priest^  thou  hast  stumbled  to-day :  and  stumble  to-night 
shall  the  prophet  with  thee.  One  order  of  the  nation^s 
ministers  goes  staggering  after  the  other !  And  I 
will  destroy  thy  Mother,  presumably  the  Nation  herself. 
Perished  are  My  people  for  lack  of  knowledge.  But  how  ? 
By  the  sin  of  their  teachers.  Because  thou,  O  Priest, 
hast  rejected  knowledge,  I  reject  thee  from  being  priest  to 
Me;  and  as  thou  hast  forgotten  the  Tor  ah  of  thy  God,  I 
forget  thy  children  ^ — /  on  My  side.  As  many  as  they  be, 
so  many  have  sinned  against  Me,  Every  jack-priest  of 
them  is  culpable.  They  have  turned^  their  glory  into 
shame.  They  feed  on  the  sin  of  My  people,  and  to  the 
guilt  of  these  lift  up  their  appetite !  The  more  the 
people  sin,  the  more  merrily  thrive  the  priests  by  fines 
and  sin-offerings.    They  live  upon  the  vice  of  the  day, 


*  iv.  4.  According  to  the  excellent  emendation  of  Beck  (quoted  by 
Wflnsche,  p.  142),  who  instead  of  SnODD^ri  proposes  inDDiS 

for  the  first  word  of  which  there  is  support  in  the  LXX.  6  Xa6s  /iow. 
The  second  word,  is  used  for  priest  only  in  a  bad  sense  by 

Hosea  himself,  x.  5,  and  in  2  Kings  xxiii.  5  of  the  calf-worship  and 
in  Zech.  i.  4  of  the  Baal  priesthood.  As  Wellhausen  remarks,  this 
emendation  restores  sense  to  a  passage  that  had  none  before. 
**  Ver.  4  cannot  be  directed  against  the  people,  but  must  rather  furnish 
the  connection  for  ver.  5»  and  effect  the  transference  from  the  reproof 
of  the  people  (w.  1-3)  to  the  reproof  of  the  priests  (5  ff.).**  The 
letters  JHD''  which  are  left  over  in  ver.  4  by  the  emendation  are  then 
justly  improved  by  Wellhausen  (following  Zunz)  into  the  vocative 
\T\2T\  and  taken  with  the  following  verse. 

*  The  application  seems  to  swerve  here.  Thy  childrtn  would  seem 
to  imply  that,  for  this  clause  at  least,  the  whole  people,  and  not  the 
priests  only,  were  addressed.  But  Robertson  Smith  takes  thy  mother 
as  equivalent,  not  to  the  nation,  but  to  the  priesthood. 

■  A  reading  current  among  Jewish  writers  and  adopted  by  Geiger, 
Urschrift^  3 1 6. 

VOL.  I.  17 


258 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


and  have  a  vested  interest  in  its  crimes.  English 
Langland  said  the  same  thing  of  the  friars  of  his  time. 
The  contention  is  obvious.  The  priests  have  given 
themselves  wholly  to  the  ritual ;  they  have  forgotten 
that  their  office  is  an  intellectual  and  moral  one. 
We  shall  return  to  this  when  treating  of  Hosea's 
doctrine  of  knowledge  and  its  responsibilities.  Priest- 
hood, let  us  only  remember,  priesthood  is  an  intellectual 
trust. 

Thus  it  comes  to  be — like  people  like  priest:  they  also 
have  fallen  under  the  ritual,  doing  from  lust  what  the 
priests  do  from  greed.  But  I  will  visit  upon  them 
their  ways,  and  their  deeds  will  I  requite  to  them. 
For  they — those  shall  eat  and  not  be  satisfied^  these 
shall  play  the  harlot  and  have  no  increase,  because  they 
have  left  off  heeding  Jehovah.  This  absorption  in  ritual 
at  the  expense  of  the  moral  and  intellectual  elements 
of  religion  has  insensibly  led  them  over  into  idolatry, 
with  all  its  unchaste  and  drunken  services.  Harlotry, 
wine  and  new  wine  take  away  the  brains  I  ^  The  result 
is  seen  in  the  stupidity  with  which  they  consult  their 
stocks  for  guidance.  My  people  I  of  its  bit  of  wood 
it  asketh  counsel,  and  its  staff  telleth  to  it  the  oracle  I 
For  a  spirit  of  harlotry  hath  led  them  astray,  and  they 
have  played  the  harlot  from  their  God.  Upon  the  head- 
lands of  the  hills  they  sacrifice,  and  on  the  heights  offer 
incense,  under  oak  or  poplar  or  terebinth,  for  the  shade  of 
them  is  pleasant.  On  headlands,  not  summits,  for  here 
no  trees  grow ;  and  the  altar  was  generally  built  under 
a  tree  and  near  water  on  some  promontory,  from  which 
the  flight  of  birds  or  of  clouds  might  be  watched. 


*  Heb.  the  hearty  which  ancient  Israel  conceived  as  the  seat  of  the 
intellect 


Hos.  iv.]       A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY:  L  MORALLY  259 


Wherefore — because  of  this  your  frequenting  of  the 
heathen  shrines— jvo^/r  daughters  play  the  harlot  and 
your  daughters-in-law  commit  adultery,  I  will  not  come 
with  punishment  upon  your  daughters  because  they  play 
the  harlot^  nor  upon  your  daughters-in-law  because  they 
commit  adultery.  Why  ?  For  they  themselves^  the 
fathers  of  Israel — or  does  he  still  mean  the  priests  ? — 
go  aside  with  the  harlots  and  sacrifice  with  the  common 
women  of  the  shrines !  It  is  vain  for  the  men  of  a 
nation  to  practise  impurity,  and  fancy  that  nevertheless 
they  can  keep  their  womankind  chaste.  So  the  stupid 
people  fall  to  ruin  ! 

{Though  thou  play  the  harlot^  Israel^  let  not  fudah 
bring  guilt  on  herself  And  come  not  to  Gilgal^  and  go 
not  up  to  Beth-Aven^  and  take  not  your  oath  at  the  Well- 
of-the-Oath,  Beer-Sheba/  By  the  life  of  fehovah  !  This 
obvious  parenthesis  may  be  either  by  Hosea  or  a  later 
writer ;  the  latter  is  more  probable.^) 

Yea^  like  a  wild  heifer  Israel  has  gone  wild.  How 
now  can  Jehovah  feed  them  like  a  lamb  in  a  broad 
meadow?  To  treat  this  clause  interrogatively  is  the 
only  way  to  get  sense  out  of  it.^  Wedded  to  idols  is 
Ephraim :  leave  him  alone.  The  participle  means 
mated  or  leagued.  The  corresponding  noun  is  used  of 
a  wife  as  the  mate  of  her  husband  *  and  of  an  idolater 
as  the  mate  of  his  idols.'^  The  expression  is  doubly 
appropriate  here,  since  Hosea  used  marriage  as  the 
figure  of  the  relation  of  a  deity  to  his  worshippers. 
Leave  him  alone — he  must  go  from  bad  to  worse.  Their 
drunkenness  over^  they  take  to  harlotry :  her  rulers  have 

*  Wellhausen  thinks  this  third  place-name  (cf.  Amos  v.  5)  has  bcea 
dropped.    It  certainly  seems  to  be  understood. 

■  But  see  above,  p.  224.  *  Mai.  ii.  4. 

So  all  critics  since  Hitii  *  Isa.  xliv.  il. 


26o 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


fallen  in  love  with  shame^  or  they  love  shame  more  than 
their  pride}  But  in  spite  of  all  their  servile  worship 
the  Assyrian  tempest  shall  sweep  them  away  in  its 
trail.  A  wind  hath  wrapt  them  up  in  her  skirts;  and 
they  shall  be  put  to  shame  by  their  sacrifices. 

This  brings  the  passage  to  such  a  climax  as  Amos 
loved  to  crown  his  periods.  And  the  opening  of  the 
next  chapter  offers  a  new  exordium. 

a.  Priests  and  Princes  Faiu 
Hose  A  v.  1-14. 

The  line  followed  in  this  paragraph  is  almost  parallel 
to  that  of  chap,  iv.,  running  out  to  a  prospect  of  invasion. 
But  the  charge  is  directed  solely  against  the  chiefs  of 
the  people,  and  the  strictures  of  chap.  vii.  7  ff.  upon 
the  political  folly  of  the  rulers  are  anticipated. 

Hear  thisj  O  Priests^  and  hearken^  House  of  Israel^  and^ 
House  of  the  King^  give  ear.  For  on  you  is  the  sentence  I 
You,  who  have  hitherto  been  the  judges,  this  time 
shall  be  judged. 

A  snare  have  ye  become  at  Mizpehy  and  a  net  spread 
out  upon  Tabor^  and  a  pit  have  they  made  deep  upon 
Shittim;^  but  I  shall  be  the  scourge  of  them  all,  I  know 
Ephraimj  and  Israel  is  not  hid  from  Me— for  now  hast 
thou  played  the  harlot^  Ephraim^  Israel  is  defiled.  The 
worship  on  the  high  places,   whether  nominally  of 


*  The  verse  is  very  uncertain.  LXX.  read  a  different  and  a  fuller 
text  from  Ephraim  in  the  previous  verse  to  harlotry  in  this:  "Ephraim 
hath  set  up  for  himself  stumbling-blocks  and  chosen  Canaanites.** 
In  the  first  of  alternate  readings  of  the  latter  half  of  the  verse  omit 
inn  as  probably  a  repetition  of  the  end  of  the  preceding  word  ;  the 
second  alternative  is  adapted  from  LXX.,  which  for  n^^^iD  must 
have  read  HJI^^iO. 

'  So  by  slightly  altering  the  consonants.    But  the  text  is  uncertain. 


Hos.v.i-14.]    A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY:  1.  MORALLY  261 


Jehovah  or  not,  was  sheer  service  of  Ba'alim.  It  was 
in  the  interest  both  of  the  priesthood  and  of  the  rulers 
to  multiply  these  sanctuaries,  but  they  were  only  traps 
for  the  people.  Their  deeds  will  not  let  them  return 
to  their  God ;  for  a  harlot  spirit  is  in  their  midst ^ 
and  Jehovahf  for  all  their  oaths  by  Him,  they  have 
not  known.  But  the  pride  of  Israel  shall  testify  to  his 
face;  and  Israel  and  Ephraim  shall  stumble  by  their  guilt 
— stumble  also  shall  Judah  with  them.  By  Israel's  pride 
many  understand  God.  But  the  term  is  used  too  op- 
probriously  by  Amos  to  allow  us  to  agree  to  this.  The 
phrase  must  mean  that  Israel's  arrogance,  or  her  proud 
prosperity,  by  the  wounds  which  it  feels  in  this  time  of 
national  decay,  shall  itself  testify  against  the  people — 
a  profound  ethical  symptom  to  which  we  shall  return 
when  treating  of  Repentance.^  Yet  the  verse  may  be 
rendered  in  harmony  with  the  context;  the  pride  of 
Israel  shall  be  humbled  to  his  face.  With  their  sheep 
and  their  cattle  they  go  about  to  seek  Jehovah,  and  shall 
not  find  Him ;  He  hath  drawn  off  from  them.  They 
have  been  unfaithful  to  Jehovah^  for  they  have  begotten 


*  Note  on  the  Pride  of  Israel. — means  grandeur^  and  is  (i)  so 
used  of  Jehovah's  majesty  (Micah  v.  3  ;  Isa.  ii.  10,  19,  21 ;  xxiv.  14),  and 

(2)  of  the  greatness  of  human  powers  (Zech.  x.  II  ;  Ezek.  xxxii.  12). 
In  Psalm  xlvii.  5  it  is  parallel  to  the  land  of  Israel  (cf.  Nahum  ii.  3). 

(3)  In  a  grosser  sense  the  word  is  used  of  the  rank  vegetation  of  Jordan 
(Eng.  wrongly  swelling)  (Jer.  xii.  5  ;  Zech.  xi.  3  :  cf.  Job  xxxviii.  11). 
It  would  appear  to  be  this  grosser  sense  of  rankness,  arrogance,  in 
which  Amos  vi.  8  takes  it  as  parallel  to  the  palaces  of  Israel  which 
Jehovah  loathes  and  will  destroy.  In  Amos  viii.  7  the  phrase  may  be 
used  in  scorn  ;  yet  some  take  it  even  there  of  God  Himself  (Buhl, 
last  cd.  of  Gesenius'  Lexicon). 

Now  in  Hosca  it  occurs  twice  in  the  phrase  given  above — HJl^l 
VDDn  p^^^  (v.  5,  vii.  10).    LXX.,  Targum  and  some  Jewish 

sxegetes  take  HJi;  as  a  \h  verb,  to  be  humbled,  and  this  suits  botli 
cgntexts,    Bui  the  word  VjDH  to  his  jaee   almost  compels  us  19 


262 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


strange  children,  A  generation  has  grown  up  who  are 
not  His.  Now  may  a  month  devour  them  with  their 
portions!  Any  month  may  bring  the  swift  invader. 
Hark  I  the  alarum  of  war  1  How  it  reaches  to  the  back 
of  the  land  I 

Blow  the  trumpet  in  Gibeah,  the  clarion  in  Ramah ; 
Raise  the  slogan^  Beth-Aven :     After  thee,  Ben- 
jamin /  "  ^ 

Ephraim  shall  become  desolation  in  the  day  of  rebuke  I 
Among  the  tribes  of  Israel  I  have  made  known  what  is 
certain  ! 

At  this  point,  ver.  lO,  the  discourse  swerves  from  the 
religious  to  the  political  leaders  of  Israel ;  but  as  the 
princes  were  included  with  the  priests  in  the  exordium 
(ver.  i),  we  can  hardly  count  this  a  new  oracle.^ 

The  princes  of  Judah  are  like  landmark-removers — 
commonest  of  cheats  in  Israel — upon  them  will  I  pour 
out  My  wrath  like  water,  Ephraim  is  oppressed^  crushed 
is  his  right ^  for  he  wilfully  went  after  vanity?  And  I  am 
as  the  moth  to  Ephraim,  and  as  rottenness  to  the  house  of 


take  nil^  as  a  verb,  to  witness  against  (ct.  Job  xvi.  8 ;  Jer.  xiv.  7). 
Hence  Wellhausen  renders  "  With  his  arrogance  Israel  witnesseth 
against  himself,"  and  confirms  the  plaint  of  Jehovah — the  arrogance 
being  the  trust  in  the  ritual  and  the  feeling  of  no  need  to  turn  from 
that  and  repent  (cf.  vii.  10).  Orelli  quotes  Amos  vi.  8  and 
Nahum  il  3,  and  says  injustice  cleaves  to  all  Israel's  splendour,  so 
it  testifies  against  him. 

But  the  context,  which  in  both  cases  speaks  of  Israel's  gradual 
decay,  demands  rather  the  interpretation  that  Israel's  material 
grandeur  shows  unmistakable  signs  of  breaking  down.  For  the 
ethical  development  of  this  interpietation,  see  below,  pp.  337  f. 
*  Probably  the  ancient  war-cry  of  the  clan.  Cf.  Judg.  v.  14, 
'  Yet  ver.  9  goes  with  ver.  8  (so  Wellii«usen),  and  not  with 
ver.  10  (so  Evvaid).  »  For  IV  read  {^^t^. 


Hos.v.i5-v«.2.]  A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY:  L  MORALLY  263 


Judah.  Both  kingdoms  have  begun  to  fall  to  pieces, 
for  by  this  time  Uzziah  of  Judah  also  is  dead,  and  the 
weak  politicians  are  in  charge  whom  Isaiah  satirised. 
And  Ephraim  saw  his  sickness^  and  Judah  his  sore;  ana 
Ephraim  went  to  Asshur  and^  sent  to  King  Jareb — King 
Combative^  King  Pick-Quarrel^  a  nickname  for  the 
Assyrian  monarch.  The  verse  probably  refers  to  the 
tribute  which  Menahem  sent  to  Assyria  in  738.  If  so, 
then  Israel  has  drifted  full  five  years  into  her  thick 
night."  But  He  cannot  heal  you,  nor  dry  up  your  sore. 
For  /,  Myself,  am  like  a  lion  to  Ephraim,  and  like  a 
young  lion  to  the  house  of  Judah,  /,  /  rend  and  go  My 
way ;  I  carry  off  and  there  is  none  to  deliver.  It  is  the 
same  truth  which  Isaiah  expressed  with  even  greater 
grimness.^  God  Himself  is  His  people's  sore ;  and 
not  all  their  statecraft  nor  alliances  may  heal  what  He 
inflicts.  Priests  and  Princes,  then,  have  alike  failed. 
A  greater  failure  is  to  follow. 

3.  Repentance  Fails. 

HosEA  V.  15 — vil  2. 

Seeing  that  their  leaders  are  so  helpless,  and  feeling 
their  wounds,  the  people  may  themselves  turn  to  God 
for  healing,  but  that  will  be  with  a  repentance  so  shallow 
as  also  to  be  futile.  They  have  no  conviction  of  sin, 
nor  appreciation  of  how  deeply  their  evils  have  eaten. 

This  too  facile  repentance  is  expressed  in  a  prayer 
which  the  Christian  Church  has  paraphrased  into  one 

'  Wellhausen  inserts  Judah,  with  that  desire  to  complete  a  parallel 
which  seems  to  me  to  be  overdone  by  so  many  critics.  If  Judah  be 
inserted  we  should  need  to  bring  the  date  of  these  verses  down  to  the 
reign  of  Ahaz  in  734. 

*  Guthe:  "King  Fighting-Cock." 

•  See  Isaiah  L— XXXIX,  (Expositor's  Bible),  pp.  242  ff. 


264 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


of  its  most  beautiful  hymns  of  conversion.    Yet  the 
introduction  to  this  prayer,  and  its  own  easy  assurance 
of  how  soon  God  will  heal  the  wounds  He  has  made, 
as  well  as  the  impatience  with  which  God  receives  it, 
oblige  us  to  take  the  prayer  in  another  sense  than  the 
hymn  which  has  been  derived  from  it.^    It  offers  bi 
one  more  symptom  of  the  optimism  of  this  ligh, 
hearted  people,  whom  no  discipline  and  no  judgmei 
can  impress  with  the  reality  of  their  incurable  decay 
They  said  of  themselves,  The  bricks  are  fallen^  let  us 
build  with  stones^  and  now  they  say  just  as  easily  and 
airily  of  their  God,  He  hath  torn  only  that  He  may  heal : 
we  are  fallen,  but  He  will  raise  us  up  again  in  a  day  or 
two.    At  first  it  is  still  God  who  speaks. 

/  am  going  My  way,  I  am  returning  to  My  own  place^ 
until  they  feel  their  guilt  and  seek  My  face.  When  trouble 
conies  upon  them^  they  will  soon  enough  seek  Me^ 
saying :  * — 

"  Come  and  let  us  return  to  Jehovah  : 
For  He  hath  rentj  that  He  may  heal  us, 
And  hath  wounded,^  that  He  may  bind  us  up. 
He  will  bring  us  to  life  in  a  couple  of  days; 
On  the  third  day  He  will  raise  us  up  again, 
That  we  may  live  in  His  presence. 


*  Cheyne  indeed  (Introduction  to  Robertson  Smith's  Prophets  oj 
Israel)  takes  the  prayer  to  be  genuine,  but  an  intrusion.  His 
reasons  do  not  persuade  me.  But  at  least  it  is  dear  that  there  is 
a  want  of  connection  between  the  prayer  and  wl  A  follows  it,  unless 
the  prayer  be  understood  in  the  sense  explained  above. 

*  Isaiah  ix.  10. 

■  Cf.  Isaiah  xviii.  4. 

*  Saying:  so  the  LXX.  adds  and  thereby  connects  chap,  v,  witii 
chap,  vi  •  Read 


Hos.v.  iS-vii.2.]  A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY:  I.  MORALLY  265 


Let  us  know,  let  us  follow  up^  to  know^  Jehovah; 
As  soon  as  we  seek  Him,  we  shall  find  Him? 
And  He  shall  come  to  us  like  the  winter-rain^ 
Like  the  spring-rain,  pouring  on  the  land  I " 

But  how  is  this  fair  prayer  received  by  God  ? 
With  incredulity,  with  impatience.  What  can  I  make 
of  thee,  Ephraim  ?  what  can  I  make  of  thee,  Judah  ? 
since  your  love  is  like  the  morning  cloud  and  like  the  dew 
so  early  gone.  Their  shallow  hearts  need  deepening. 
Have  they  not  been  deepened  enough  ?  Wherefore 
I  have  hewn  them  by  the  prophets,  I  have  slain  them  by 
the  words  of  My  mouth,  and  My  judgment  goeth  forth  like 
the  lightning}  For  leal  love  have  I  desired,  and  not 
sacrifice;  and  the  knowledge  of  God  more  than  burnt- 
offerings. 

That  the  discourse  comes  back  to  the  ritual  is  very 
intelligible.  For  what  could  make  repentance  seem  so 
easy  as  the  belief  that  forgiveness  can  be  won  by 
simply  offering  sacrifices  ?  Then  the  prophet  leaps 
upon  what  each  new  year  of  that  anarchy  revealed 
afresh — the  profound  sinfulness  of  the  people. 

But  they  in  human  fashion^  have  transgressed  the 
covenant!  There — he  will  now  point  out  the  very 
spots — have  they  betrayed^  Me  !    Gilead  is  a  city  of  evil- 


*  Literally  hunt^  pursue.  It  is  the  same  word  as  is  used  of  the  un- 
faithful Israel's  pursuit  of  the  Ba*alim,  chap.  ii.  9. 

*  So  by  a  rearrangement  of  consonants  ("iriNVDi  p  IJ^inSi^^D)  and 
the  help  of  the  LXX.  (evprjaofxep  avrbv)  Giesebrecht  (^Beitrage,  p.  208) 
proposes  to  read  the  clause,  which  in  the  traditional  text  runs,  like  the 
morn  His  going  forth  shall  be  certain. 

»  Read  ^ps:^p. 

*  Or  like  Adantf  or  (Guthe)  like  the  heathen, 

*  The  verb  means  to  prove  false  to  any  contract,  but  especially 
marriage. 


266 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


doers:  stamped  with  bloody  footprints;  assassins^  in 
troops;  a  gang  of  priests  murder  on  the  way  to  Shechem, 
Yea^  crime  ^  have  they  done.  In  the  house  of  Israel  I  have 
seen  horrors :  there  Ephraim  hath  played  the  harlot : 
Israel  is  defiled— Judah  as  well? 

Truly  the  sinfulness  of  Israel  is  endless.  Every 
effort  to  redeem  them  only  discovers  more  of  it  When 
I  would  turny  when  I  would  heal  Israel^  then  the  guilt  of 
Ephraim  displays  itselj  and  the  evils  of  Samaria^  these 
namely  :  that  they  work  fraud^  and  the  thief  cometh  in — 
evidently  a  technical  term  for  housebreaking* — while 
abroad  a  crew  of  highwaymen  foray.  And  they  never 
think  in  their  hearts  that  all  their  evil  is  recorded  by  Me. 
Now  have  their  deeds  encompassed  them:  they  are  con-- 
stantly  before  Me, 

.  Evidently  real  repentance  on  the  part  of  such  a 
people  is  impossible.  As  Hosea  said  before,  Theit 
deeds  will  not  let  them  return.^ 

4*  Wickedness  in  High  Places. 

Hosea  vii.  3-7. 

There  follows  now  a  very  difficult  passage.  The 
text  is  corrupt,  and  we  have  no  means  of  determining 
what  precise  events  are  intended.  The  drift  of  meaning, 
however,  is  evident.  The  disorder  and  licentiousness 
of  the  people  are  favoured  in  high  places ;  the  throne 
itself  is  guilty. 

>  Read  ^DHD. 

*  In  several  passages  of  the  Old  Testament  the  word  means 
unchastity. 

*  Here  the  LXX.  close  chap,  vi.,  taking  1 1  b  along  with  chap.  vii. 
Some  think  the  whole  of  ver.  1 1  to  be  a  Judsean  gloss. 

*  Cf.  Joel  ii.  9,  and  the  New  Testament  phrase  to  cotm  as  a  thiif, 
•▼.4- 


Hos. vii. 3-7]   A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY:  L  MORALLY  267 


With  their  evil  they  make  a  king  glad^  and  princes 
with  their  falsehoods:  all  of  them  are  adulterers  ^  like  an 
oven  heated  by  the  baker^  .  .  .  ^ 

On  the  day  of  our  king — some  coronation  or  king's 
birthday — the  princes  were  sick  with  fever  from  wine. 
He  stretched  forth  his  hand  with  loose  fellows^  pre- 
sumably made  them  his  associates.  Like  an  oven  have 
they  made  ^  their  hearts  with  their  intriguing}  All  night 
their  anger  sleepeth :  ^  in  the  morning  it  blazes  like  a 
flame  of  fire.  All  of  them  glow  like  an  oven,  and  devour 
their  rulers:  all  their  kings  have  fallen,  without  one  of 
them  calling  on  Me. 

An  obscure  passage  upon  obscure  events ;  yet  so 
lurid  with  the  passion  of  that  fevered  people  in  the 
flagrant  years  743 — 735  that  we  can  make  out  the 
kind  of  crimes  described.  A  king  surrounded  by 
loose  and  unscrupulous  nobles :  adultery,  drunkenness, 
conspiracies,  assassinations:  every  man  striking  for 
himself ;  none  appealing  to  God. 

From  the  court,  then,  downwards,  by  princes, 
priests  and  prophets,  to  the  common  fathers  of  Israel 
and  their  households,  immorality  prevails.    There  is 


'  The  text  is  unsound.  Heb. :  "  like  an  oven  kindled  by  the  baker, 
the  stirrer  (stoker  or  kneader  ?)  resteth  from  kneading  the  dough  until 
it  be  leavened."  LXX. :  wj  KXi^avos  KaLOfxevos  els  Trixpiv  /cara/caiJ/wtros  dirb 
T^s  0X0765  dirb  (pvpd(T€U)s  ar^aros  iws  rod  ^vjjLudrjyax  a(>r6 — i.e.  for  n^2^^ 
they  read  n^vh  ^t^.  Oort  emends  Heb.  to  IHDN  DH  "im,  which  gets 
rid  of  the  difficulty  of  a  feminine  participle  with  ll^H.  Wellhausen 
omits  whole  clause  as  a  gloss  on  ver.  6.  But  if  there  be  a  gloss  it 
properly  commences  with  n325'\ 

*  LXX.  fxeraTOLfJLQv  ?  ? 

•  LXX.  kindled,  n^?.     So  Vollers,  Z.A.T,IV.,  III.  25a 

*  Lit.  lurking. 

•  Massoretic  Text  with  jdiflferent  vowels  reads  their  bakgr,  LXX, 


368 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


no  redeeming  feature,  and  no  hope  of  better  things. 
For  repentance  itself  the  capacity  is  gone. 

In  making  so  thorough  an  indictment  of  the  moral 

condition  of  Israel,  it  would  have  been  impossible  for 
Hosea  not  to  speak  also  of  the  political  stupidity  and 
restlessness  which  resulted  from  it.  But  he  has  largely 
reserved  these  for  that  part  of  his  discourse  which  now 
follows,  and  which  we  will  take  in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY:  IL  POLITICALLY 
HosEA  vii.  8 — X. 

MORAL  decay  means  political  decay.  Sins  like 
these  are  the  gangrene  of  nations.  It  is  part 
of  Hosea^s  greatness  to  have  traced  this,  a  proof  of  that 
versatility  which  distinguishes  him  above  other  prophets. 
The  most  spiritual  of  them  all,  he  is  at  the  same  time 
the  most  political.  We  owe  him  an  analysis  of  repent- 
ance to  which  the  New  Testament  has  little  to  add ;  * 
but  he  has  also  left  us  a  criticism  of  society  and  of 
politics  in  Israel,  unrivalled  except  by  Isaiah.  We 
owe  him  an  intellectual  conception  of  God,^  which  for 
the  first  time  in  Israel  exploded  idolatry ;  yet  he  also 
is  the  first  to  define  Israel's  position  in  the  politics  of 
Western  Asia.  With  the  simple  courage  of  conscience 
Amos  had  said  to  the  people  :  You  are  bad,  therefore 
you  must  perish.  But  Hosea's  is  the  insight  to  follow 
the  processes  by  which  sin  brings  forth  death — to 
trace,  for  instance,  the  effects  of  impurity  upon  a 
nation's  powers  of  reproduction,  as  well  as  upon  its 
intellectual  vigour. 

So  intimate  are  these  two  faculties  of  Hosea,  that  in 
chapters  devoted  chiefly  to  the  sins  of  Israel  we  have 
already  seen  him  expose  the  political  disasters  that 


^  Sec  below,  Chap  XXII.  «  See  Chap.  XXL 

269 


270 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


follow.  But  from  the  point  we  have  now  reached — 
chap.  vii.  8 — the  proportion  of  his  prophesying  is 
reversed :  he  gives  us  less  of  the  sin  and  more  of  the 
social  decay  and  political  folly  of  his  age. 

I.  The  Confusion  of  the  Nation. 

HosEA  vii.  8 — viii.  3. 

Hosea  begins  by  summing  up  the  public  aspect  of 
Israel  in  two  epigrams,  short  but  of  marvellous  ade- 
quacy (vii.  8) : — 

Ephraim — among  the  nations  he  mixeth  himself: 
Ephraim  has  become  a  cake  not  turned. 

It  is  a  great  crisis  for  any  nation  to  pass  from  the 
seclusion  of  its  youth  and  become  a  factor  in  the  main 
history  of  the  world.  But  for  Israel  the  crisis  was  trebly 
great.  Their  difference  from  all  other  tribes  about 
them  had  struck  the  Canaanites  on  their  first  entry  to 
the  land:^  their  own  earliest  writers  had  emphasised 
their  seclusion  as  their  strength;^  and  their  first 
prophets  consistently  deprecated  every  overture  made 
by  them  either  to  Egypt  or  to  Assyria.  We  feel  the 
force  of  the  prophets'  policy  when  we  remember  what 
happened  to  the  Philistines.  These  were  a  people  as 
strong  and  as  distinctive  as  Israel,  with  whom  at  one 
time  they  disputed  possession  of  the  whole  land.  But 
their  position  as  traders  in  the  main  line  of  traffic 
between  Asia  and  Africa  rendered  the  Philistines 
peculiarly  open  to  foreign  influence.  They  were  now 
Egyptian  vassals,  now  Assyrian  victims ;  and  after  the 
invasion  of  Alexander  the  Great  their  cities  became 


*  Numb,  xxiii.  9  b ;  Josh.  ii.  b. 


'  Peut,  zxxiii.  27. 


Hos.vii.8-viii.3.J  A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY :  IL  POLITICALLY  271 


centres  of  Hellenism,  while  the  Jews  upon  their  secluded 
hills  still  stubbornly  held  unmixed  their  race  and  their 
religion.  This  contrast,  so  remarkably  developed  in 
later  centuries,  has  justified  the  prophets  of  the  eighth 
in  their  anxiety  that  Israel  should  not  annul  the  advan- 
tages of  her  geographical  seclusion  by  trade  or  treaties 
with  the  Gentiles.  But  it  was  easier  for  Judaea  to 
take  heed  to  the  warning  than  for  Ephraim.  The 
latter  lies  as  open  and  fertile  as  her  sister-province  is 
barren  and  aloof.  She  has  many  gates  into  the  world, 
and  they  open  upon  many  markets.  Nobler  oppor- 
tunities there  could  not  be  for  a  nation  in  the  maturity 
of  its  genius  and  loyal  to  its  vocation  : — 

Rejoice  J  O  Zebulun^  in  thine  outgoings  : 
They  shall  call  the  nations  to  the  mountain; 
They  shall  suck  of  the  abundance  of  the  seas, 
And  of  the  treasure  that  is  stored  in  the  sands} 

But  in  the  time  of  his  outgoings  Ephraim  was  not  sure 
of  himself  nor  true  to  his  God,  the  one  secret  and 
strength  of  the  national  distinctiveness.  So  he  met 
the  world  weak  and  unformed,  and,  instead  of  impress- 
ing it,  was  by  it  dissipated  and  confused.  The  tides 
of  a  lavish  commerce  scattered  abroad  the  faculties  of 
the  people,  and  swept  back  upon  their  life  alien  fashions 
and  tempers,  to  subdue  which  there  was  neither  native 
strength  nor  definiteness  of  national  purpose.  All  this 
is  what  Hosea  means  by  the  first  of  his  epigrams : 
Ephraim — among  the  nations  he  lets  himself  be  poured 
out,  or  mixed  up.  The  form  of  the  verb  does  not  else- 
where occur ;  but  it  is  reflexive,  and  the  meaning  of 
the  root  is  certain.    Balal  is  to  pour  out,  or  mingle,  as 


Deut.  zxxiii.  18,  19^ 


273 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


of  oil  in  the  sacrificial  flour.  Yet  it  is  sometimes  used 
of  a  mixing  which  is  not  sacred,  but  profane  and  hope- 
less. It  is  applied  to  the  first  great  confusion  of 
mankind,  to  which  a  popular  etymology  has  traced  the 
name  Babel,  as"  if  for  Balbel.  Derivatives  of  the  stem 
bear  the  additional  ideas  of  staining  and  impurity. 
The  alternative  renderings  which  have  been  proposed, 
lets  himself  be  soaked  and  scatters  himself  abroad  like 
wheat  among  tares,  are  not  so  probable,  yet  hardly 
change  the  meaning.^  Ephraim  wastes  and  confuses 
himself  among  the  Gentiles.  The  nation's  character 
is  so  disguised  that  Hosea  afterwards  nicknames  him 
Canaan  ;  *  their  religion  so  filled  with  foreign  influences 
that  he  calls  the  people  the  harlot  of  the  Ba'alim. 

If  the  first  of  Hosea's  epigrams  satirises  Israel's 
foreign  relations,  the  second,  with  equal  brevity  and 
wit,  hits  off  the  temper  and  constitution  of  society  at 
home.  For  the  metaphor  of  which  this  epigram  is 
composed  Hosea  has  gone  to  the  baker.  Among  all 
classes  in  the  East,  especially  under  conditions  requiring 
haste,  there  is  in  demand  a  round  flat  scone,  which  is 
baked  by  being  laid  on  hot  stones  or  attached  to  the 
wall  of  a  heated  oven.  The  whole  art  of  baking 
consists  in  turning  the  scone  over  at  the  proper 
moment.  If  this  be  mismanaged,  it  does  not  need  a 
baker  to  tell  us  that  one  side  may  be  burnt  to  a  cinder, 

from  In  Phcen.        seems  to  have  been  used  as  in 

I&rael  of  the  sacrificial  mingling  of  oil  and  flour  (cf.  Robertson  Smith, 
Religion  of  Semites^  I.  203) ;  in  Arabic  ball  is  to  weaken  a  strong 
liquid  with  water,  while  halbal  is  to  be  confused,  disordered.  The 
Syriac  halal  is  to  mix.    Some  have  taken  Hosea*s  as  if  from 

(Isa.  XXX.  24;  Job  vi.  5),  usually  understood  as  a  mixed  crop 
of  wheat  and  inferior  vegetables  for  fodder ;  but  there  is  reason  to 
believe  means  rather  fresh  corn.  The  derivation  from  xhl^  to 
grow  old,  does  not  seem  probable.  '  xii.  8. 


Hos.vii.S-viii.sO  A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY :  IL  POLITICALLY  273 


while  the  other  remains  raw.  Ephraim^  says  Hosea, 
is  an  unturned  cake. 

By  this  he  may  mean  one  of  several  things,  or  all 
of  them  together,  for  they  are  infectious  of  each  other. 
There  was,  for  instance,  the  social  condition  of  the 
people.  What  can  better  be  described  as  an  unturned 
scone  than  a  community  one  half  of  whose  number 
are  too  rich,  and  the  other  too  poor  ?  Or  Hosea  may 
refer  to  that  unequal  distribution  of  religion  through 
life  with  which  in  other  parts  of  his  prophecy  he 
reproaches  Israel.  They  keep  their  religion,  as  Amos 
more  fully  tells  us,  for  their  temples,  and  neglect  to 
carry  its  spirit  into  their  daily  business.  Or  he  may 
refer  to  Israel's  politics,  which  were  equally  in  want 
of  thoroughness.  They  rushed  hotly  at  an  enterprise, 
but  having  expended  so  much  fire  in  the  beginning 
of  it,  they  let  the  end  drop  cold  and  dead.  Or  he  may 
wish  to  satirise,  like  Amos,  Israel's  imperfect  culture — 
the  pretentious  and  overdone  arts,  stuck  excrescence- 
wise  upon  the  unrefined  bulk  of  the  nation,  just  as  in 
many  German  principalities  last  century  society  took  on 
a  few  French  fashions  in  rough  and  exaggerated  forms, 
while  at  heart  still  brutal  and  coarse.  Hosea  may 
mean  any  one  of  these  things,  for  the  figure  suits  all, 
and  all  spring  from  the  same  defect.  Want  of 
thoroughness  and  equable  effort  was  Israel's  besetting 
sin,  and  it  told  on  all  sides  of  his  life.  How  better 
describe  a  half-fed  people,  a  half-cultured  society,  a 
half-lived  religion,  a  half-hearted  policy,  than  by  a 
half-baked  scone  ? 

We  who  are  so  proud  of  our  political  bakers,  we 
who  scorn  the  rapid  revolutions  of  our  neighbours  and 
complacently  dwell  upon  our  equable  ovens,  those  slow 
and  cautious  centuries  of  political  development  which 

VOL.  L  iS 


274 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


lie  behind  us — have  we  anything  better  than  om 
neighbours,  anything  better  than  Israel,  to  show  in 
our  civilisation  ?  Hosea's  epigram  fits  us  to  the  letter. 
After  all  those  ages  of  baking,  society  is  still  with  us 
an  unturned  scone :  one  end  of  the  nation  with  the 
strength  burnt  out  of  it  by  too  much  enjoyment  of  life, 
the  other  with  not  enough  of  warmth  to  be  quickened 
into  anything  like  adequate  vitality.  No  man  can  deny 
that  this  is  so ;  we  are  able  to  live  only  by  shutting 
our  hearts  to  the  fact.  Or  is  religion  equably  dis- 
tributed through  the  lives  of  the  religious  portion  of 
our  nation  ?  Of  late  years  religion  has  spread,  and 
spread  wonderfully,  but  of  how  many  Christians  is  it 
still  true  that  they  are  but  half-baked — living  a  life  one 
side  of  which  is  reeking  with  the  smoke  of  sacrifice, 
while  the  other  is  never  warmed  by  one  religious 
thought.  We  may  have  too  much  religion  if  we 
confine  it  to  one  day  or  one  department  of  life  :  our 
worship  overdone,  with  the  sap  and  the  freshness 
burnt  out  of  it,  cindery,  dusty,  unattractive,  fit  only 
for  crumbling ;  our  conduct  cold,  damp  and  heavy, 
like  dough  the  fire  has  never  reached. 

Upon  the  theme  of  these  two  epigrams  the  other 
verses  of  this  chapter  are  variations.  Has  Ephraim 
mixed  himself  among  the  peoples?  Strangers  have 
devoured  his  strength,  and  he  knoweth  it  not^  senselessly 
congratulating  himself  upon  the  increase  of  his  trade 
and  wealth,  while  he  does  not  feel  that  these  have 
sucked  from  him  all  his  distinctive  virtue.  Yea^  grey 
hairs  are  sprinkled  upon  him^  and  he  knoweth  it  not.  He 
makes  his  energy  the  measure  of  his  life,  as  Isaiah 
also  marked,^  but  sees  not  that  it  all  means  waste  and 


'  ix.  9t. 


Hos.vii.8-viii.3.]  A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY:  11.  POLITICALLY  275 


decay.  The  pride  of  Israel  testifieth  to  his  face^  yet — 
even  when  the  pride  of  the  nation  is  touched  to  the 
quick  by  such  humihating  overtures  as  they  make  to 
both  Assyria  and  Egypt  ^ — they  do  not  return  to  Jehovah 
their  God^  nor  seek  Him  for  all  this. 

With  virtue  and  single-hearted  faith  have  disappeared 
intellect  and  the  capacity  for  affairs.  Ephraim  is 
become  like  a  silly  dove — a  dove  without  hearty  to  the 
Hebrews  the  organ  of  the  wits  of  a  man — they  cty  to 
Egypti  they  go  off  to  Assyria.  Poor  pigeon  of  a  people, 
fluttering  from  one  refuge  to  another  I  But  as  they  go 
I  will  throw  over  them  My  nety  like  a  bird  of  the  air  I 
will  bring  them  down,  I  will  punish  them  as  their 
congregation  have  heard — this  text  as  it  stands^  can 
only  mean  ^*in  the  manner  I  have  publicly  proclaimed 
in  Israel."  Woe  to  them  that  they  have  strayed  from  Me  t 
Damnation  to  them  that  they  have  rebelled  against  Me  ! 
While  I  would  have  redeemed  them^  they  spoke  lies  about 
Me,  And  they  have  never  cried  unto  Me  with  their  hearty 
but  they  keep  howling  on  their  beds  for  corn  and  new  wine. 
No  real  repentance  theirs,  but  some  fear  of  drought 
and  miscarriage  of  the  harvests,  a  sensual  and  servile 
sorrow  in  which  they  wallow.  They  seek  God  with 
no  heart,  no  true  appreciation  of  what  He  is,  but  use 
the  senseless  means  by  which  the  heathen  invoke  their 
gods  :  they  cut  themselves^  and  so  apostatise  from  Me  I 
And  yet  it  was  I  who  disciplined  them^  I  strengthened  their 
arm^  but  with  regard  to  Me  they  kept  thinking  only  evil ! 
So  fickle  and  sensitive  to  fear,  they  turn  indeed,  but  not 
upwards ;  no  Godward  conversion  theirs.  In  their 
repentance  they  are  like  a  bow  which  swerves — off  upon 

•  See  above,  p.  261,  and  below,  p.  337, 

•  But  the  reading  is  very  doubtful. 

•  For  nnjn^  read  mjn\ 


276 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


some  impulse  of  their  ill-balanced  natures.  Their 
princes  must  fall  by  the  sword  because  of  the  bitterness — 
we  should  have  expected  falseness — of  their  tongue: 
this  is  their  scorn  in  the  land  of  Egypt/  To  the  allusion 
we  have  no  key. 

With  so  false  a  people  nothing  can  be  done.  Their 
doom  is  inevitable.  So 

"Cry  havoc  and  let  slip  the  dogs  of  war.* 

To  thy  mouth  with  the  trumpet  I  The  Eagle  is  down 
upon  the  house  of  fehovah  I  ^  Where  the  carcase  is,  there 
are  the  eagles  gathered  together.  For — to  sum  up  the 
whole  crisis — they  have  transgressed  My  covenant^  and 
against  My  law  have  they  rebelled.  To  Me  they  cry^ 
My  God^  we  know  Thee^  we  Israel  I  What  does  it 
matter?  Israel  hath  spurned  the  good:^  the  Foe  must 
pursue  him, 

it  is  the  same  climax  ol  inevitable  war  to  which 
Amos  led  up  his  periods ;  and  a  new  subject  is  now 
introduced. 

2.  Artificial  Kings  and  Artificial  Gods. 

HosEA  viii.  4-13. 

The  curse  of  such  a  state  of  dissipation  as  that  to 
which  Israel  had  fallen  is  that  it  produces  no  men. 
Had  the  people  had  in  them    the  root  of  the  matter/' 


*  Wellhausen's  objection  to  the  first  clause,  that  one  does  not  set  a 
trumpet  to  one's  gums,  which  "Tin  literally  means,  is  beside  the  mark. 
"Jin  is  more  than  once  used  of  the  mouth  as  a  whole  (Job  viii.  7  r 
Prov.  V.  3).  The  second  clause  gives  the  reason  of  the  trumpet,  the 
alarum  trumpet,  in  the  first.    Read  (so  also  Wellhausen). 

*  Cf.  Amos:  Seek  Me  =  Seek  the  good ;  and  Jesus:  Not  every  om 
that  saith  unto  Me,  Lord,  Lord ;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  My  Fathef 
in  heaven. 


Kos.viii.4-i3-]  ^  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY :  IL  POLITICALLY  277 


had  there  been  the  stalk  and  the  fibre  of  a  national 
consciousness  and  purpose,  it  would  have  blossomed  to 
a  man.  In  the  similar  time  of  her  outgoings  upon  the 
world  Prussia  had  her  Frederick  the  Great,  and  Israel,, 
too,  would  have  produced  a  leader,  a  heaven-sent  king, 
if  the  national  spirit  had  not  been  squandered  on 
foreign  trade  and  fashions.  But  after  the  death  of 
Jeroboam  every  man  who  rose  to  eminence  in  Israel, 
rose,  not  on  the  nation,  but  only  on  the  fevered  and 
transient  impulse  of  some  faction ;  and  through  the 
broken  years  one  party  monarch  was  lifted  after 
another  to  the  brief  tenancy  of  a  blood-stained  throne. 
They  were  not  from  God,  these  monarchs  ;  but  man- 
made,  and  sooner  or  later  man-murdered.  With  his 
sharp  insight  Hosea  likens  these  artificial  kings  to  the 
artificial  gods,  also  the  work  of  men's  hands ;  and  till 
near  the  close  of  his  book  the  idols  of  the  sanctuary 
and  the  puppets  of  the  throne  form  the  twin  targets  of 
his  scorn. 

They  have  made  kings ^  but  not  from  Me;  they  have 
made  princes^  but  I  knew  not.  With  their  silver  and 
their  gold  they  have  manufactured  themselves  idolsj  only 
that  they^  may  be  cut  off— king  after  king,  idol  upon  idol. 
He  loathes  thy  Calf  O  Samaria^  the  thing  of  wood  and 
gold  which  thou  callest  Jehovah.  And  God  confirms 
this.  Kindled  is  Mine  anger  against  them  !  How  long 
will  they  be  incapable  of  innocence? — unable  to  clear 
themselves  of  guilt  I  The  idol  is  still  in  his  mind. 
For  from  Israel  is  it  also — as  much  as  the  puppet- 
kings;  a  workman  made  it^  and  no  god  is  it.  Yea, 
splinters  shall  the  Calf  of  Samaria  become}  Splinters 


'  So  LXX.,  but  Plebrcw  it. 
Davidson's  Synlax^  §  136,  Rem.  i,  and  §  71,  Rom.  4. 


278 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


shall  everything  in  Israel  become.  Fot  they  sow  the 
wtndf  and  the  whirlwind  shall  they  reap.  Indeed  like  a 
storm  Hosea's  own  language  now  sweeps  along ;  and 
his  metaphors  are  torn  into  shreds  upon  it.  Stalk 
it  hath  none :  the  sprout  brings  forth  no  grain :  if  it 
were  to  bring  forth^  strangers  would  swallow  it}  Nay, 
Israel  hath  let  herself  be  swallowed  up  !  Already  are 
they  become  among  the  nations  like  a  vessel  there  is  no 
more  use  for.  Heathen  empires  have  sucked  them  dry. 
They  have  gone  up  to  Assyria  like  a  runaway  wild-ass. 
Ephraim  hath  hired  lovers.'^  It  is  again  the  note  of  their 
mad  dissipation  among  the  foreigners.  But  if  they  thus 
give  themselves  away  among  the  nations^  I  must  gather 
them  in,  and  then  shall  they  have  to  cease  a  little  from 
the  anointing  of  a  king  and  princes.^  This  wilful  roam- 
ing of  theirs  among  the  foreigners  shall  be  followed  by 
compulsory  exile,  and  all  their  unholy  artificial  politics 
shall  cease.  The  discourse  turns  to  the  other  target. 
For  Ephraim  hath  multiplied  altars — to  sin ;  altars  are 
his  own — to  sin.  Were  I  to  write  for  him  by  myriads 
My  laws^  as  those  of  a  stranger  would  they  be  accounted. 
They  slay  burnt-offerings  for  Me  and  eat  flesh.^  Jehovah 
hath  no  delight  in  them.    Now  must  He  remember  their 


*  So  by  the  accents  runs  the  verse,  but,  as  Wellhausen  has  pointed 
out,  both  its  sense  and  its  assonance  are  better  expressed  by  another 
arrangement :  Hath  it  grown  up  ?  then  it  hath  no  shootf  nor  bringeth  forth 
fruit. 

£n  lo  semach, 

b*li  ya'aseh  qemach. 

Yet  to  this  there  Is  a  grammatical  obstacle. 

•  Wellhausen's  reading  to  Egypt  with  love  gifts  scarcely  suits  the 
verb  go  up.    Notice  the  play  upon  P(h)ere',  wild-ass  and  Ephra'pm]. 

'  So  LXX.  reads.  Heb. :  they  shall  involve  themselves  with  tributi 
to  the  king  of  princei,  presumably  the  Assyrian  monarch, 

♦  So  LXX.  »  Text  obscure. 


Hos.  Ix.  1-9.]  A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY:  IL  POLITICALLY  «79 


guilt  and  make  visitation  upon  their  sin.  They — to  Egypt 
— shall  return.  .  .  }  Back  to  their  ancient  servitude 
must  they  go,  as  formerly  He  said  He  would  with- 
draw them  to  the  wilderness.* 

3.  The  Effects  of  Exile. 

HosEA  ix.  1-9. 

Hosea  now  turns  to  describe  the  effects  of  exile 
upon  the  social  and  religious  habits  of  the  people.  It 
must  break  up  at  once  the  joy  and  the  sacredness  of 
their  lives.  Every  pleasure  will  be  removed,  every  taste 
offended.  Indeed,  even  now,  with  their  conscience  of 
having  deserted  Jehovah,  they  cannot  pretend  to  enjoy 
the  feasts  of  the  Ba  alim  in  the  same  hearty  way  as  the 
heathen  with  whom  they  mix.  But,  whether  or  no,  the 
time  is  near  when  nature-feasts  and  all  other  religious 
ceremonies — all  that  makes  life  glad  and  regular  and 
solemn — shall  be  impossible. 

Rejoice  not^  O  Israel^  to  the  pitch  of  rapture  like  the 
heathen^  for  thou  hast  played  the  harlot  from  thy  God; 
a  harlots  hire  hast  thou  loved  on  all  threshing-floors} 
Threshing-floor  and  wine-vat  shall  ignore  *  them^  and  the 
new  wine  shall  play  them  false.  They  shall  not  abide  in 
the  land  of  fehovahj  but  Ephraim  shall  return  to  Egypt^ 
and  in  Assyria  they  shall  eat  what  is  unclean.  They 
shall  not  pour  libations  to  fehovahj  nor  prepare  ^  for  Him 
their  sacrifices.    Like  the  bread  of  sorrows  shall  their 


*  LXX.  addition  here  is  plainly  borrowed  from  ix.  3.  For  th« 
reasons  for  omitting  ver.  14  see  above,  p.  223. 

»  ii.  16. 

•  On  this  verse  see  more  particularly  below,  pp.  340  ff. 

*  So  LXX. 

•  Read  Cf.  with  the  whole  passage  iii, 


28o 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


bread'^  be  ;  all  that  eat  of  it  shall  be  defiled:  yea,  their 
bread  shall  be  only  for  their  appetite ;  they  shall  not 
bring  it  ^  to  the  temple  of  Jehovah.  He  cannot  be  wor- 
shipped off  His  own  land.  They  will  have  to  live  like 
animals,  divorced  from  religion,  unable  to  hold  com- 
munion with  their  God.  What  shall  ye  do  for  days^  of 
festival^  or  for  a  day  of  pilgrimage  to  Jehovah  ?  For  lo^ 
they  shall  be  gone  forth  from  destruction^^  the  shock  and 
invasion  of  their  land,  only  that  Egypt  may  gather  them 
in  J  Memphis  give  them  sepulture  j  nettles  inherit  their  jewels 
of  silver^  thorns  come  up  in  their  tents.  The  threat  of 
exile  still  wavers  between  Assyria  and  Egypt.  And  in 
Egypt  Memphis  is  chosen  as  the  destined  grave  of 
Israel ;  for  even  then  her  Pyramids  and  mausoleums 
were  ancient  and  renowned,  her  vaults  and  sepulchres 
.were  countless  and  spacious. 

But  what  need  is  there  to  seek  the  future  for  Israel's 
doom,  when  already  this  is  being  fulfilled  by  the  cor- 
ruption of  her  spiritual  leaders  ? 

The  days  of  visitation  have  come^  have  come  the  days 
oj  requital,  Israel  Blvesidy  experiences^  them  I  A  fool 
is  the  prophet  J  raving  mad  the  man  of  the  spirit.  The 
old  ecstasy  of  Saul's  day  has  become  delirium  and 
fanaticism.^  Why  ?  For  the  mass  of  thy  guilt  and  the 
multiplied  treachery  !  Ephraim  acts  the  spy  with  my  God 
There  is  probably  a  play  on  the  name,  for  with  the 
meaning  a  watchman  for  God  it  is  elsewhere  used  as 
an  honourable  title  of  the  prophets.  The  prophet  is  a 
fowler^s  snare  upon  all  his  ways.  Treachery — they  have 


•  DDn^  for  urh. 


2 

«  Plural :  so  LXX. 


*  Others  read  they  are  gone  to  Assyria. 

•  Literally  knows.  See  below,  p.  321,  m.  9, 
®  See  above,  p.  28. 


Hos.  ix.  10-17.]  A  PEOPLE  IN BECA  Y:  II.  POLITICAL!  F  281 


made  it  profound  in  the  very  house  of  their  God.  ^  They 
have  done  corruptly^  as  in  the  days  of  Gibeah,  Their 
iniquity  is  remembered ;  visitation  is  made  on  their  sin. 

These  then  were  the  symptoms  of  the  profound 
political  decay  which  followed  on  Israel's  immorality. 
The  national  spirit  and  unity  of  the  people  had  dis- 
appeared. Society — half  of  it  was  raw,  half  of  it  was 
baked  to  a  cinder.  The  nation,  broken  into  factions, 
produced  no  man  to  lead,  no  king  with  the  stamp  of  God 
upon  him.  Anarchy  prevailed;  monarchs  were  made 
and  murdered.  There  was  no  prestige  abroad,  nothing  but 
contempt  among  the  Gentiles  for  a  people  whom  they 
had  exhausted.  Judgment  was  inevitable  by  exile — • 
nay,  it  had  come  already  in  the  corruption  of  the  spirit- 
ual leaders  of  the  nation. 

Hosea  now  turns  to  probe  a  deeper  corruption  still. 

4.  "The  Corruption  that  is  through  Lust.'' 

Rosea  ix.  10-17:  cf.  iv.  11-14. 

Those  who  at  the  present  time  are  enforcing  among 
us  the  revival  of  a  Paganism — without  the  Pagan  con- 
science— and  exalting  licentiousness  to  the  level  of  an 
art,  forget  how  frequently  the  human  race  has  attempted 
their  experiment,  with  far  more  sincerity  than  they 
themselves  can  put  into  it,  and  how  invariably  the  result 
has  been  recorded  by  history  to  be  weariness,  decay  and 
death.  On  this  occasion  we  have  the  story  told  to  us 
by  one  who  to  the  experience  of  the  statesman  adds  the 
vision  of  the  poet. 

*  So,  after  the  LXX.,  by  taking  Ip^ioyn  with  this  verse,  8,  instead 
of  with  ver.  9. 


282 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


The  generation  to  which  Hosea  belonged  practised 
a  periodical  unchastity  under  the  alleged  sanctions  of 
nature  and  religion.  And,  although  their  prophet  told 
them  that — like  our  own  apostates  from  Christianity — 
they  could  never  do  so  with  the  abandon  of  the  Pagans, 
for  they  carried  within  them  the  conscience  and  the 
memory  of  a  higher  faith,  it  appears  that  even  the 
fathers  of  Israel  resorted  openly  and  without  shame 
to  the  licentious  rites  of  the  sanctuaries.  In  an  earlier 
passage  of  his  book  Hosea  insists  that  all  this  must 
impair  the  people's  intellect.  Harlotry  takes  away  the 
brains}  He  has  shown  also  how  it  confuses  the 
family,  and  has  exposed  the  old  delusion  that  men 
may  be  impure  and  keep  their  womankind  chaste.* 
But  now  he  diagnoses  another  of  the  inevitable  results 
of  this  sin.  After  tracing  the  sin,  and  the  theory  of 
life  which  permitted  it,  to  their  historical  beginnings 
at  the  entry  of  the  people  into  Canaan,  he  describes 
how  the  long  practice  of  it,  no  matter  how  pretentious 
its  sanctions,  inevitably  leads  not  only  to  exterminating 
strifes,  but  to  the  decay  of  the  vigour  of  the  nation, 
to  barrenness  and  a  diminishing  population. 

Like  grapes  in  the  wilderness  I  found  Israel^  like  the 
first  fruit  on  a  fig-tree  in  her  first  season  I  saw  your 
fathers.  So  had  the  lusty  nation  appeared  to  God  in 
its  youth ;  in  that  dry  wilderness  all  the  sap  and 
promise  of  spring  were  in  its  eyes,  because  it  was  still 
pure.  But  they — they  came  to  Baal-Peor — the  first  of  the 
shrines  of  Canaan  which  they  touched — and  dedicated 
themselves  to  the  Shame y  and  became  as  abominable  as 
the  object  of  their  love.  Ephraim — the  Fruitful  name  is 
emphasised — their  glory  is  flown  away  like  a  bird.  No 


*  iv.  IS. 


•  iv.  13,  14, 


Hos.ix.  10-17.]  A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY :  IL  POLITICALLY  283 


more  birthy  no  more  motherhood^  no  more  conception  I  * 
Blasted  is  Ephraim^  withered  the  root  of  them^  fruit  they 
produce  not:  yea^  even  when  they  beget  children  I  slay 
the  darlings  of  their  womb,  Yea^  though  they  bring  up 
their  sons  I  bereave  them,  till  they  are  poor  in  men. 
Yea,  woe  upon  themselves  also,  when  I  look  away  from 
them  I  Ephraim — again  the  Fruitful  name  is  dragged 
to  the  front — for  prey,  as  I  have  seen,  are  his  sons 
destined}  Ephraim — he  must  lead  his  sons  to  the 
slaughter. 

And  the  prophet  interrupts  with  his  chorus :  Give 
them,  O  LORD — what  wilt  Thou  give  them  ?  Give  them 
a  miscarrying  womb  and  breasts  that  are  dry  I 

All  their  mischief  is  in  Gilgal — again  the  Divine  voice 
strikes  the  connection  between  the  national  worship 
and  the  national  sin — yea,  there  do  I  hate  them :  for  the 
evil  of  their  doings  from  My  house  I  will  drive  them, 
I  will  love  them  no  more:  all  their  nobles  are  rebels? 

And  again  the  prophet  responds :  My  God  will  cast 
them  away,  for  they  have  not  hearkened  to  Him,  and  they 
shall  be  vagabonds  among  the  nations. 

Some  of  the  warnings  which  Hosea  enforces  with 
regard  to  this  sin  have  been  instinctively  felt  by 
mankind  since  the  beginnings  of  civilisation,  and  are 
found  expressed  among  the  proverbs  of  nearly  all  the 
languages.*    But  I  am  unaware  of  any  earlier  moralist 


'  Here,  between  w.  II  and  12,  Wellhausen  with  justice  proposes 
to  insert  ver.  16. 

'  So  Wellhausen,  after  LXX. ;  probably  correct. 

■  So  we  may  attempt  to  echo  the  play  on  the  words. 

*  Cf.,  e.g.j  the  Proverbs  of  Ptah-Hotep  the  Egyptian,  circa  2500  B.C. 
"There  is  no  prudence  in  taking  part  in  it,  and  thousands  of  men 
destroy  themselves  in  order  to  enjoy  a  moment,  brief  as  a  dream, 
while  they  gain  death  so  as  to  know  it.    It  is  a  villainous  .  .  .  that 


2R4 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


in  any  literature  who  traced  the  effects  of  national 
licentiousness  in  a  diminishing  population,  or  who  ex- 
posed the  persistent  delusion  of  libertine  men  that  they 
themselves  may  resort  to  vice,  yet  keep  their  woman- 
kind chaste.  Hosea,  so  far  as  we  know,  was  the  first 
to  do  this.  History  in  many  periods  has  confirmed 
the  justice  of  his  observations,  and  by  one  strong  voice 
after  another  enforced  his  terrible  warnings.  The  ex- 
perience of  ancient  Persia  and  Egypt ;  the  languor  of 
the  Greek  cities;  the  '*deep  weariness  and  sated 
lust"  which  in  Imperial  Rome  ''made  human  fife 
a  hell " ;  the  decay  which  overtook  Italy  after  the 
renascence  of  Paganism  without  the  Pagan  virtues ; 
the  strife  and  anarchy  that  have  rent  every  court 
where,  as  in  the  case  of  Henri  Quatre,  the  king  set 
the  example  of  libertinage ;  the  incompetence,  the  pol- 
troonery, the  treachery,  that  have  corrupted  every  camp 
where,  as  in  French  Metz  in  1870,  soldiers  and  officers 
gave  way  so  openly  to  vice ;  the  checks  suffered  by 
modern  civilisation  in  face  of  barbarism  because  its 
pioneers  mingled  in  vice  with  the  savage  races  they 
were  subduing ;  the  number  of  great  statesmen  falling 
by  their  passion,  and  in  their  fall  frustrating  the  hopes 
of  nations ;  the  great  families  worn  out  by  indulgence ; 
the  homes  broken  up  by  infidelities ;  the  tainting  of  the 
blood  of  a  new  generation  by  the  poisonous  practices 
of  the  old, — have  not  all  these  things  been  in  every 
age,  and  do  they  not  still  happen  near  enough  to 
ourselves  to  give  us  a  great  fear  of  the  sin  which 
causes  them  all  ?    Alas  I  how  slow  men  are  to  listen 


of  a  man  who  excites  himself  (?) ;  if  he  goes  on  to  carry  it  out,  his 
mind  abandons  him.  For  as  for  him  who  is  without  repugnance  for 
such  an  [act],  there  is  no  good  sense  at  aU  in  him." — From  the 
translation  in  Records  oj  the  Past,  Second  Series,  Vol.  III.,  p.  24. 


Hos.ix.  ia-17.]  A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY:  IL  POLITICALLY  285 


and  to  lay  to  heart!  Is  it  possible  that  we  can  gild 
by  the  names  of  frivolity  and  piquancy  habits  the 
wages  of  which  are  death  ?  Is  it  possible  that  we  can 
enjoy  comedies  which  make  such  things  their  jest? 
We  have  among  us  many  who  find  their  business  in 
the  theatre,  or  in  some  of  the  periodical  literature  of 
our  time,  in  writing  and  speaking  and  exhibiting  as 
closely  as  they  dare  to  limits  of  public  decency.  When 
will  they  learn  that  it  is  not  upon  the  easy  edge  of 
mere  conventions  that  they  are  capering,  but  upon  the 
brink  of  those  eternal  laws  whose  further  side  is  death 
and  hell — that  it  is  not  the  tolerance  of  their  fellow- 
men  they  are  testing,  but  the  patience  of  God  Himself? 
As  for  those  loud  few  who  claim  licence  in  the  name 
of  art  and  literature,  let  us  not  shrink  from  them  as 
if  they  were  strong  or  their  high  words  true.  They 
are  not  strong,  they  are  only  reckless ;  their  claims  are 
lies.  All  history,  the  poets  and  the  prophets,  whether 
Christian  or  Pagan,  are  against  them.  They  are  traitors 
alike  to  art,  to  love,  and  to  every  other  high  interest 
of  mankind. 

It  may  be  said  that  a  large  part  of  the  art  of  the 
day,  which  takes  great  Hcence  in  dealing  with  these 
subjects,  is  exercised  only  by  the  ambition  to  expose  that 
ruin  and  decay  which  Hosea  himself  affirms.  This  is 
true.  Some  of  the  ablest  and  most  popular  writers  of 
our  time  have  pictured  the  facts,  which  Hosea  de- 
scribes, with  so  vivid  a  realism  that  we  cannot  but 
judge  them  to  be  inspired  to  confirm  his  ancient  warn- 
ings, and  to  excite  a  disgust  of  vice  in  a  generation 
which  otherwise  treats  vice  so  lightly.  But  if  so,  their 
ministry  is  exceeding  narrow,  and  it  is  by  their  side 
that  we  best  estimate  the  greatness  of  the  ancient 
prophet.    Their  transcript  of  human  life  may  be  true  to 


286 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


the  facts  it  selects,  but  we  find  in  it  no  trace  of  facts 
which  are  greater  and  more  essential  to  humanity.  They 
have  nothing  to  tell  us  of  forgiveness  and  repentance, 
and  yet  these  are  as  real  as  the  things  they  describe. 
Their  pessimism  is  unrelieved.  They  see  the  cor^ 
ruption  that  is  in  the  world  through  lust;  they  forget  that 
there  is  an  escape  from  it.^  It  is  Hosea's  greatness  that, 
while  he  felt  the  vices  of  his  day  with  all  needed 
thoroughness  and  realism,  he  yet  never  allowed  them 
to  be  inevitable  or  ultimate,  but  preached  repentance 
and  pardon,  with  the  possibility  of  holiness  even  for 
his  depraved  generation.  It  is  the  littleness  of  the 
Art  of  our  day  that  these  great  facts  are  forgotten  by 
her,  though  once  she  was  their  interpreter  to  men. 
When  she  remembers  them  the  greatness  of  her  past 
will  return. 

5.  Once  More:  Puppet-Kings  and  Puppet-Gods. 

HOSEA  X. 

For  another  section,  the  tenth  chapter,  the  prophet 
returns  to  the  twin  targets  of  his  scorn :  the  idols 
and  the  puppet-kings.  But  few  notes  are  needed. 
Observe  the  reiterated  connection  between  the  fertility 
of  the  land  and  the  idolatry  of  the  people. 

A  wanton  vine  is  Israel;  he  lavishes  his  fruit  :^  the 
more  his  fruity  the  more  he  made  his  altars;  the  goodlier 


>  2  Peter  i. 

•  Doubtful.  The  Heb.  text  gives  an  inappropriate  if  not  impossible 
clause,  even  if  HIS^^  be  taken  from  a  root  nit^,  to  s$i  or  produce 
(Barth,  Etynt.  Stud.,  66).  LXX. :  b  Kapirbs  evOrjPujy  atJr^s  (A.Q.  aCrrrjt 
evdrjvQv),  "  her  [the  vine*s]  fruit  flourishing."  Some  parallel  is  required 
to  pp3  of  the  first  clause ;  and  it  is  possible  that  it  may  have  been 
from  a  root  PIIkJ^  or  Pl^,  corresponding  to  Arabic  s&h,  "to  wander" 
in  the  sense  of  scattering  or  being  scattered. 


Ho8.x.]    A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY:  11.  POLITICALLY  287 


his  land  J  the  more  goodly  he  made  his  ma^^eboth,  or 
sacred  pillars.  False  is  the  heart  of  them :  now  must 
they  atone  for  it.  He  shall  break  the  neck  of  their  altars; 
He  shall  ruin  their  pillars.  For  already  they  are  sayings 
No  king  have  we,  for  we  have  not  feared  Jehovah,  and 
the  king — what  could  he  do  for  us  ?  Speaking^  of  words, 
swearing  of  false  oaths,  making  of  bargains — ////  law  * 
breaks  out  like  weeds  in  the  furrows  of  the  field. 

For  the  Calf  of  Beth-Aven  the  inhabitants^  of  Samaria 
shall  be  anxious :  yea,  mourn  for  him  shall  his  people, 
and  his  priestlings  shall  writhe  for  him— for  his  glory 
that  it  is  banished  from  him.  In  these  days  of  heavy 
tribute  shall  the  gold  of  the  golden  calf  be  safe  ?  Yea, 
himself  shall  they  pack^  to  Assyria;  he  shall  be  offered 
as  tribute  to  King  Pick-Quarrel!"  Ephraim  shall  take 
disgrace,  and  Israel  be  ashamed  because  of  his  counsel.^ 
Undone  Samaria  /  Her  king  like  a  chip  on  the  face 
of  the  waters  I  This  may  refer  to  one  of  the  revolu- 
tions in  which  the  king  was  murdered.  But  it  seems 
more  appropriate  to  the  final  catastrophe  of  724-1  :  the 
fall  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  king's  banishment  to 
Assyria.  If  the  latter,  the  verse  has  been  inserted ; 
but  the  following  verse  would  lead  us  to  take  these 
disasters  as  still  future.  And  the  high  places  of  idolatry 
shall  be  destroyed,  the  sin  of  Israel ;  thorn  and  thistle 
shall  come  up  on  their  altars.  And  they  shall  say  to  the 
mountains.  Cover  us,  and  to  the  hills,  Fall  on  us.  It 


»  After  LXX.  *  LXX.  supplies. 

*  Doubtful.   Lawsuits  ?  •  See  above,  p.  263. 

•  "Calf,"  "inhabitants"— so  LXX. 

•  Very  uncertain.    Wellhausen  reads  front  his  idol^  I^VyD. 

*  ^iVp :  compare  Arabic  qsf,  "  to  break " ;  but  there  is  also  the 
assonant  Arabic  qsb,  "  reed."  The  Rabbis  translate  foam :  of.  the 
ether  meaning  of  *=  outbreak  of  anger,  which  suggests  bubble. 


288 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


cannot  be  too  often  repeated :  these  handmade  gods, 
these  chips  of  kings,  shall  be  swept  away  together. 

Once  more  the  prophet  returns  to  the  ancient  origins 
of  Israel's  present  sins,  and  once  more  to  their  shirking 
of  the  discipline  necessary  for  spiritual  results,  but 
only  that  he  may  lead  up  as  before  to  the  inevitable 
doom.  From  ^  the  days  of  Gibeah  thou  hast  sinned^  O 
Israel.  There  have  they  remained — never  progressed 
beyond  their  position  there — and  this  without  war  over^ 
taking  them  in  Gibeah  against  the  dastards?  As  soon 
as  I  please^  I  can  chastise  them^  and  peoples  shall  be 
gathered  against  them  in  chastisement  for  their  double 
sin.  This  can  scarcely  be,  as  some  suggest,  the  two 
calves  at  Bethel  and  Dan.  More  probably  it  is  still 
the  idols  and  the  man-made  kings.  Now  he  returns 
to  the  ambition  of  the  people  for  spiritual  results  with- 
out a  spiritual  discipline. 

And  Ephraim  is  a  broken-in  heifer ^  that  loveth  to 
thresh.^  But  I  have  come  on  her  fair  neck,  I  will  yoke 
Ephraim;  Judah  must  plough;  Jacob  must  harrow  for 
himself  It  is  all  very  well  for  the  unmuzzled  beast  * 
to  love  the  threshing,  but  harder  and  unrewarded 
labours  of  ploughing  and  harrowing  have  to  come 
before  the  floor  be  heaped  with  sheaves.  Israel  must 
not  expect  religious  festival  without  religious  discipline. 
Sow  for  yourselves  righteousness ;  then  shall  ye  reap  the 


*  RosenmQller :  more  than  in.  These  days  are  evidently  not  the 
beginning  of  the  kingship  under  Saul  (so  Wellhausen),  for  with 
that  Hosea  has  no  quarrel,  but  either  the  idolatry  of  Micah  (Judg 
xvii.  3  ff.),  or  more  probably  the  crime  of  Benjamin  (Judg.  xix.  22). 

•  Obscure ;  text  corrupt,  and  in  next  verse  uncertain. 

•  For  the  sense  of  the  verse  both  participles  are  surely  needed. 
Wellhausen  thinks  two  redundant. 

*  Deut.  XXV.  4;  i  Cor.  ix.  9;  i  Tim.  ▼,  18. 


Hos.x.]    A  PEOPLE  IN  DECAY:  IL  POLITICALLY  289 


fruit  of  God^s  leal  love}  Break  up  your  fallow  ground^ 
for  it  is  time  to  seek  Jehovah^  till  He  come  and  shower 
salvation^  upon  you?  Ye  have  ploughed  wickedness; 
disaster  have  ye  reaped :  ye  have  eaten  the  fruit  of  false- 
hood; for  thou  didst  trust  in  thy  chariots^  in  the  multitude 
of  thy  warriors.  For  the  tumult  of  war  shall  arise  among 
thy  tribeSj^  and  all  thy  fenced  cities  shall  be  ruined^  as 
Salman  beat  to  ruin  Beth-Arbel^  in  the  day  of  war:  the 
mother  shall  be  broken  on  the  children — presumably  the 
land  shall  fall  with  the  falling  of  her  cities.  Thus  shall 
I  do  to  yoUf  O  house  of  Israel,'^  because  of  the  evil  of  your 
evil:  soon  shall  the  king  of  Israel  be  undone — undone. 

The  political  decay  of  Israel,  then,  so  deeply  figured 
in  all  these  chapters,  must  end  in  utter  collapse.  Let 
us  sum  up  the  gradual  features  of  this  decay :  the 
substance  of  the  people  scattered  abroad ;  the  national 
spirit  dissipated  ;  the  national  prestige  humbled ;  the 
kings  mere  puppets ;  the  prophets  corrupted ;  the 
national  vigour  sapped  by  impurity ;  the  idolatry  con- 
scious of  its  impotence. 

>  h-KX,  :  fruit  of  life. 

'  P*l^  surely  in  the  sense  in  which  we  find  it  in  Isa.  xl.  ff.    LXX. : 

the  fruits  of  righteousness  shall  be  yours. 

3  We  shall  return  to  this  passage  in  dealing  with  Repentance ;  see 
p.  345. 

*  So  LXX.    Wellhausen  suspects  authenticity  of  the  whole  clause, 

*  Wellhausen  proposes  to  read  I'^iyi  for  ^^DJ;3,  but  there  is  no 
need.  *  See  above,  p.  216,     5,  *  So  LXX* 


VOL.  L 


19 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  FATHERHOOD  AND  HUMANITY  OF  GOD 
HOSEA  zi. 


JL  eleventh  chapter  breaks  like  a  high  and  open 
mound.  The  prophet  enjoys  the  first  of  his  two  clear 
visions — that  of  the  Past.^  Judgment  continues  to 
descend.  Israel's  Sun  is  near  his  setting,  but  before 
he  sinks — 


Across  these  confused  and  vicious  years,  through 
which  he  has  painfully  made  his  way,  Hosea  sees  the 
tenderness  and  the  romance  of  the  early  history  of  his 
people.  And  although  he  must  strike  the  old  despairing 
note — that,  by  the  insincerity  of  the  present  generation, 
all  the  ancient  guidance  of  their  God  must  end  in  this  I 
— yet  for  some  moments  the  blessed  memory  shines  by 
itself,  and  God's  mercy  appears  to  triumph  over  Israel's 
ingratitude.  Surely  their  sun  will  not  set ;  Love  must 
prevail.  To  which  assurance  a  later  voice  from  the 
Exile  has  added,  in  verses  lO  and  ii,  a  confirmation 
suitable  to  its  own  circumstances. 

When  Israel  was  a  childy  then  I  loved  him^ 
And  from  Egypt  I  called  him  to  be  My  son. 


Hosea's  travail,  the 


**A  lingering  light  he  fondly  throws 
On  the  dear  hills,  whence  first  he  rose.** 


See  above,  p.  253. 
290 


Hos.xi.]  THE  FATHERHOOD  AND  HUMANITY  OF  GOD  291 


The  early  history  of  Israel  was  a  romance.  Think 
of  it  historically.  Before  the  Most  High  there  spread 
an  array  of  kingdoms  and  peoples.  At  their  head 
were  three  strong  princes — sons  indeed  of  God,  if  all 
the  heritage  of  the  past,  the  power  of  the  present  and 
the  promise  of  the  future  be  tokens.  Egypt,  wrapt  in 
the  rich  and  jewelled  web  of  centuries,  basked  by  Nile 
and  Pyramid,  all  the  wonder  of  the  world's  art  in  his 
dreamy  eyes.  Opposite  him  Assyria,  with  barer  but 
more  massive  limbs,  stood  erect  upon  his  highlands, 
grasping  in  his  sword  the  promise  of  the  world's  power. 
Between  the  two,  and  using  both  of  them,  yet  with  his 
eyes  westward  on  an  empire  of  which  neither  dreamed, 
the  Phoenician  on  his  sea-coast  built  his  storehouses 
and  sped  his  navies,  the  promise  of  the  world's  wealth. 
It  must  ever  remain  the  supreme  romance  of  history, 
that  the  true  son  of  God,  bearer  of  His  love  and 
righteousness  to  all  mankind,  should  be  found,  not 
only  outside  this  powerful  trinity,  but  in  the  puny  and 
despised  captive  of  one  of  them — in  a  people  that  was 
not  a  state,  that  had  not  a  country,  that  was  without 
a  history,  and,  if  appearances  be  true,  was  as  yet 
devoid  of  even  the  rudiments  of  civilisation — a  child 
people  and  a  slave. 

That  was  the  Romance,  and  Hosea  gives  us  the  Grace 
which  made  it.  When  Israel  was  a  child,  then  I  loved 
him.  The  verb  is  a  distinct  impulse  :  I  began ^  I  learned y 
to  love  him,  God's  eyes,  that  passed  unheeding  the 
adult  princes  of  the  world,  fell  upon  this  Uttle  slave  boy, 
and  He  loved  him  and  gave  him  a  career  :  from  Egypt 
I  called  him  to  be  My  son. 

Now,  historically,  it  was  the  persuasion  of  this  which 
made  Israel.  All  their  distinctiveness  and  character, 
their  progress  from  a  level  with  other  nomadic  tribes 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


to  the  rank  of  the  greatest  religious  teachers  of  humanity, 
started  from  the  memory  of  these  two  facts — that  God 
loved  them,  and  that  God  called  them.  This  was  an 
unfailing  conscience — the  obligation  that  they  were  not 
their  own,  the  irresistible  motive  to  repentance  even 
in  their  utmost  backsliding,  the  unquenchable  hope  of 
a  destiny  in  their  direst  days  of  defeat  and  scattering. 

Some,  of  course,  may  cavil  at  the  narrow,  national 
scale  on  which  such  a  belief  was  held,  but  let  them 
remember  that  it  was  held  in  trust  for  all  mankind. 
To  snarl  that  Israel  felt  this  sonship  to  God  only  for 
themselves,  is  to  forget  that  it  is  they  who  have  per- 
suaded humanity  that  this  is  the  only  kind  of  sonship 
worth  claiming.  Almost  every  other  nation  of  antiquity 
imagined  a  filial  relation  to  the  deity,  but  it  was  either 
through  some  fabulous  physical  descent,  and  then  often 
confined  only  to  kings  and  heroes,  or  by  some  mystical 
mingling  of  the  Divine  with  the  human,  which  was  just 
as  gross  and  sensuous.  Israel  alone  defined  the  con- 
nection as  a  historical  and  a  moral  one.  The  sons  of 
God  are  begotten  not  of  bloody  nor  of  the  will  of  the  fleshy 
nor  of  the  will  of  man^  but  of  God}  Sonship  to  God 
is  something  not  physical,  but  moral  and  historical, 
into  which  men  are  carried  by  a  supreme  awakening 
to  the  Divine  love  and  authority.  Israel,  it  is  true,  felt 
this  only  in  a  general  way  for  the  nation  as  a  whole  ;  ^ 
but  their  conception  of  it  embraced  just  those  moral 
contents  which  form  the  glory  of  Christ's  doctrine  of 
the  Divine  sonship  of  the  individual.  The  belief  that 
God  is  our  Father  does  not  come  to  us  with  our  carnal 
birth — except  in  possibility  :  the  persuasion  of  it  is  not 


•  St.  John's  Gospel,  i.  12,  13. 

•  Or  occasionally  for  the  king  as  the  nation's  representative! 


Hos.xu]  THE  FATHERHOOD  AND  HUMANITY  OF  GOD  293 


conferred  by  our  baptism  except  in  so  far  as  that  is 
Christ's  own  seal  to  the  fact  that  God  Almighty  loves 
us  and  has  marked  us  for  His  own.  To  us  sonship  is 
a  becoming,  not  a  being — the  awakening  of  our  adult 
minds  into  the  surprise  of  a  Father's  undeserved  mercy, 
into  the  constraint  of  His  authority  and  the  assurance 
of  the  destiny  He  has  laid  up  for  us.  It  is  conferred 
by  love,  and  confirmed  by  duty.  Neither  has  power 
brought  it,  nor  wisdom,  nor  wealth,  but  it  has  come 
solely  with  the  wonder  of  the  knowledge  that  God  loves 
us,  and  has  always  loved  us,  as  well  as  in  the  sense, 
immediately  following,  of  a  true  vocation  to  serve  Him. 
Sonship  which  is  less  than  this  is  no  sonship  at  all.  But 
so  much  as  this  is  possible  to  every  man  through  Jesus 
Christ.  His  constant  message  is  that  the  Father  loves 
every  one  of  us,  and  that  if  we  know  ^  that  love,  we 
are  God's  sons  indeed.  To  them  who  feel  it,  adoption 
into  the  number  and  privileges  of  the  sons  of  God  comes 
with  the  amazement  and  the  romance  which  glorified 
God's  choice  of  the  child-slave  Israel.  Behold,  they 
cry,  what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath  bestowed  upon 
uSf  that  we  should  be  called  the  sons  of  God? 

But  we  cannot  be  loved  by  God  and  left  where  we 
are.  Beyond  the  grace  there  lies  the  long  discipline 
and  destiny.  We  are  called  from  servitude  to  freedom, 
from  the  world  to  God — each  of  us  to  run  a  course, 
and  do  a  work,  which  can  be  done  by  no  one  else. 
That  Israel  did  not  perceive  this  was  God's  sore 
sorrow  with  them. 

The  more  I  ^  called  to  them^  the  farther  they  went  from 
Me}    They  to  the  Baalim  kept  sacrificing,  and  to  images 

*  See  below,  pp.  321-3.       *  I  John  iii.       •  So  rightly  the  LXX. 
LXX.,  rightly  separating  Dn\:?Qp   into  ^JQP  and    UT\^  which 
latter  is  the  nominative  to  the  next  clause. 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


offering  incense.  But  God  persevered  with  grace, 
and  the  story  is  at  first  continued  in  the  figure  of 
Fatherhood  with  which  it  commenced  ;  then  it  changes 
to  the  metaphor  of  a  humane  man's  goodness  to  his 
beasts.  Yet  I  taught  Ephraim  to  walk^  holding  them  on 
Mine  arms,^  but  they  knew  not  that  I  healed  them — pre- 
sumably when  they  fell  and  hurt  themselves.  With  the 
cords  of  a  man  I  would  draw  them^  with  bands  of  love; 
and  I  was  to  them  as  those  who  lift  up  the  yoke  on  their 
jawSf  and  gently  would  I  give  them  to  eat?  It  is  the 
picture  of  a  team  of  bullocks,  in  charge  of  a  kind  driver. 
Israel  are  no  longer  the  wanton  young  cattle  of  the 
previous  chapter,  which  need  the  yoke  firmly  fastened 
on  their  neck,^  but  a  team  of  toiling  oxen  mounting 
some  steep  road.  There  is  no  use  now  for  the  rough 
ropes,  by  which  frisky  animals  are  kept  to  their  work ; 
but  the  driver,  coming  to  his  beasts'  heads,  by  the 
gentle  touch  of  his  hand  at  their  mouths  and  by 
words  of  sympathy  draws  them  after  him.  /  drew  them 
with  cords  of  a  man^  and  with  bands  of  love.  Yet  there 
is  the  yoke,  and  it  would  seem  that  certain  forms  of 
this,  when  beasts  were  working  upwards,  as  we  should 
say  against  the  collar^  pressed  and  rubbed  upon  them, 
so  that  the  humane  driver,  when  he  came  to  their 
heads,  eased  the  yoke  with  his  hands.  /  was  as  they 
that  take  the  yoke  off  their  jaws;  *  and  then,  when  they 
got  to  the  top  of  the  hill,  he  would  rest  and  feed  them. 
That  is  the  picture,  and  however  uncertain  we  may 
feel  as  to  some  of  its  details,  it  is  obviously  a  passage 


'  So  again  rightly  the  LXX. 

•  The  reading  is  uncertain.  The  of  the  following  verse  (6) 
must  be  read  as  the  Gre^k  reads  it,  as  1^?,  and  taken  with  ver.  5, 

■  X.  II. 

•  Or  lifted  forvvard  Ironi  the  neck  to  the  jaws. 


Hos.xi.]  THE  FATHERHOOD  AND  HUMANITY  OF  GOD  29$ 


— Ewald  says  "  the  earliest  of  all  passages — in  which 
"  human  means  precisely  the  same  as  love."  It  ought 
to  be  taken  along  with  that  other  passage  in  the  great 
Prophecy  of  the  Exile,  where  God  is  described  as  He 
that  led  them  through  the  deep,  as  an  horse  in  the 
wilderness f  that  they  should  not  stumble :  as  a  beast  goeth 
down  into  the  valley ^  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  gave  him  rest} 
Thus  then  the  figure  of  the  fatherliness  of  God 
changes  into  that  of  His  gentleness  or  humanity.  Do 
not  let  us  think  that  there  is  here  either  any  descent 
of  the  poetry  or  want  of  connection  between  the  two 
figures.  The  change  is  true,  not  only  to  Israel's,  but 
to  our  own  experience.  Men  are  all  either  the  eager 
children  of  happy,  irresponsible  days,  or  the  bounden, 
plodding  draught-cattle  of  life's  serious  burdens  and 
charges.  Hosea's  double  figure  reflects  human  Hfe 
in  its  whole  range.  Which  of  us  has  not  known  this 
fatherliness  of  the  Most  High,  exercised  upon  us,  as 
upon  Israel,  throughout  our  years  of  carelessness  and 
disregard  ?  It  was  God  Himself  who  taught  and 
trained  us  then  ; — 

**When  through  the  slippery  paths  ot  youth 
With  heedless  steps  I  ran, 
Thine  arm  unseen  conveyed  me  safe. 
And  led  me  up  to  man.' 

Those  speedy  recoveries  from  the  binders  of  early 
wilfulness,  those  redemptions  from  the  sins  of  youth — 
happy  were  we  if  we  knew  that  it  was  He  who  healed 
us.  But  there  comes  a  time  when  men  pass  fron 
leading-strings  to  harness — when  we  feel  faith  less  and 
duty  more — when  our  work  touches  us  more  closely  than 
our  God.    Death  must  be  a  strange  transformer  of  tne 


'  Isa.  Ixiii.  13,  14. 


296 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


spirit,  yet  surely  not  more  strange  than  life,  which  out 
of  the  eager  buoyant  child  makes  in  time  the  slow 
automaton  of  duty.  It  is  such  a  stage  which  the 
fourth  of  these  verses  suits,  when  we  look  up,  not  so 
much  for  the  fatherliness  as  for  the  gentleness  and 
humanity  of  our  God.  A  man  has  a  mystic  power 
of  a  very  wonderful  kind  upon  the  animals  over  whom 
he  is  placed.  On  any  of  these  wintry  roads  of  ours 
we  may  see  it,  when  a  kind  carter  gets  down  at  a  hill, 
and,  throwing  the  reins  on  his  beast's  back,  will  come 
to  its  head  and  touch  it  with  his  bare  hands,  and  speak 
to  it  as  if  it  were  his  fellow  ;  till  the  deep  eyes  fill  with 
light,  and  out  of  these  things,  so  much  weaker  than 
itself,  a  touch,  a  glance,  a  word,  there  will  come  to  it 
new  strength  to  pull  the  stranded  waggon  onward.  The 
man  is  as  a  god  to  the  beast,  coming  down  to  help  it, 
and  it  almost  makes  the  beast  human  that  he  does  so. 
Not  otherwise  does  Hosea  feel  the  help  which  God  gives 
His  own  on  the  weary  hills  of  life.  We  need  not 
discipline,  for  our  work  is  discipline  enough,  and  the 
cares  we  carry  of  themselves  keep  us  straight  and 
steady.  But  we  need  sympathy  and  gentleness — this 
very  humanity  which  the  prophet  attributes  to  our  God. 
God  comes  and  takes  us  by  the  head;  through  the 
mystic  power  which  is  above  us,  but  which  makes  us 
like  itself,  we  are  lifted  to  our  task.  Let  no  one  judge 
this  incredible.  The  incredible  would  be  that  our  God 
should  prove  any  less  to  us  than  the  merciful  man  is 
to  his  beast.  But  we  are  saved  from  argument  by 
experience.  When  we  remember  how,  as  life  has 
become  steep  and  our  strength  exhausted,  there  has 
visited  us  a  thought  which  has  sharpened  to  a  word,  a 
word  which  has  warmed  to  a  touch,  and  we  have  drawn 
ourselves  together  and  leapt  up  new  men,  can  we  feel 


Hos.xi.]  THE  FATHERHOOD  AND  HUMANITY  OF  GOD  297 


that  God  was  any  less  in  these  things,  than  in  the 
voice  of  conscience  or  the  message  of  forgiveness,  or 
the  restraints  of  His  disciphne  ?  Nay,  though  the  reins 
be  no  longer  felt,  God  is  at  our  head,  that  we  should 
not  stumble  nor  stand  still. 

Upon  this  gracious  passage  there  follows  one  of 
those  swift  revulsions  of  feeling,  which  we  have  learned 
almost  to  expect  in  Hosea.  His  insight  again  overtakes 
his  love.  The  people  will  not  respond  to  the  goodness 
of  their  God  ;  it  is  impossible  to  work  upon  minds  so 
fickle  and  insincere.  Discipline  is  what  they  need. 
He  shall  return  to  the  land  of  Egyptj  or  Asshur  shall 
be  his  king  (it  is  still  an  alternative),  for  they  have 
refused  to  return  to  Me.  .  .  }  'Tis  but  one  more  in- 
stance of  the  age-long  apostasy  of  the  people.  My 
people  have  a  bias  ^  to  turn  from  Me ;  and  though  they 
(the  prophets)  call  them  upwards^  none  of  them  can 
lift  them? 

Yet  God  is  God,  and  though  prophecy  fail  He  will 
attempt  His  Love  once  more.  There  follows  the 
greatest  passage  in  Hosea — deepest  if  not  highest  of 
his  book — the  breaking  forth  of  that  exhaustless 
mercy  of  the  Most  High  which  no  sin  of  man  can  bar 
back  nor  wear  out. 

How  am  I  to  give  thee  up^  O  Ephraim  ? 
How  am  I  to  let  thee  gOy  O  Israel? 
How  am  I  to  give  thee  up? 
Am  I  to  make  an  Admah  of  thee  —a  Seboim  ? 
My  heart  is  tuined  upon  Me^ 

*  Ver.  6  has  an  obviously  corrupt  text,  and,  weakening  as  it  does 
the  climax  of  ver.  5,  may  be  an  insertion. 

^  Are  hung  or  swung  towards  turning  away  from  M$, 

*  This  verse  is  also  uncertain. 


298 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


My  compassions  begin  to  boil : 
I  will  not  perform  the  fierceness  of  Mine  anger^ 
I  will  not  turn  to  destroy  Ephraim; 
For  God  am  I  and  not  man^ 
The  Holy  One  in  the  midst  of  thee^  yet  I  come 
not  to  consume  I 

Such  a  love  has  been  the  secret  of  Hosea's  per- 
sistence through  so  many  years  with  so  faithless  a 
people,  and  now,  when  he  has  failed,  it  takes  voice  to 
itself  and  in  its  irresistible  fulness  makes  this  last 
appeal.  Once  more  before  the  end  let  Israel  hear  God 
in  the  utterness  of  His  Love  I 

The  verses  are  a  climax,  and  obviously  to  be  suc- 
ceeded by  a  pause.  On  the  brink  of  his  doom,  will 
Israel  turn  to  such  a  God,  at  such  a  call  ?  The  next 
verse,  though  dependent  for  its  promise  on  this  same 
exhaustless  Love,  is  from  an  entirely  different  circum- 
stance, and  cannot  have  been  put  by  Hosea  here.* 

'  For  y'))1t  which  makes  nonsense,  read  to  consume^  or 

with  Wellhausen  amend  further  am  not  willing  to 

consume, 

*  They  will  follow  fehovah  ;  like  a  lion  He  will  roar,  and  they  shall 
hurry  trembling  from  the  west.  Like  birds  shah  they  hurry  trembling 
from  Egyptf  and  like  doves  from  the  land  of  Assyria^  and  I  will  bring 
them  to  their  homes — '/is  the  oracle  of  Jehovah,  Not  only  does  this 
verse  contain  expressions  which  are  unusual  to  Hosea,  and  a  very 
strange  metaphor,  but  it  is  not  connected  either  historically  or 
logically  with  the  previous  verse.  The  latter  deals  with  the  people 
before  God  has  scattered  them — offers  them  one  more  chance  before 
exile  comes  on  them.  But  in  this  verse  they  are  already  scattered, 
and  just  about  to  be  brought  back.  It  is  such  a  promise  as  both  in 
language  and  metaphor  was  common  among  the  prophets  of  the 
Exile.  In  the  LXX.  the  verse  is  taken  from  chap,  zi  and  put 
with  chap.  zii. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  FINAL  ARGUMENT 
Hose  A  xii, — xiv,  i. 

THE  impassioned  call  with  which  last  chapter  closed 
was  by  no  means  an  assurance  of  salvation  :  How 
am  I  to  give  thee  up^  Ephraim  ?  how  am  I  to  let  thee  go^ 
Israel  ?  On  the  contrary,  it  was  the  anguish  of  Love, 
when  it  hovers  over  its  own  on  the  brink  of  the  destruc- 
tion to  which  their  wilfulness  has  led  them,  and  before 
relinquishing  them  would  seek,  if  possible,  some  last 
way  to  redeem.  Surely  that  fatal  morrow  and  the 
people's  mad  leap  into  it  are  not  inevitable  1  At  least, 
before  they  take  the  leap,  let  the  prophet  go  back  once 
more  upon  the  moral  situation  of  to-day,  go  back  once 
more  upon  the  past  of  the  people,  and  see  if  he  can 
find  anything  else  to  explain  that  bias  to  apostasy* 
which  has  brought  them  to  this  fatal  brink — anything 
else  which  may  move  them  to  repentance  even  there. 
So  in  chaps,  xii.  and  xiii.  Hosea  turns  upon  the  now 
familiar  trail  of  his  argument,  full  of  the  Divine  jealousy, 
determined  to  give  the  people  one  other  chance  to  turn ; 
but  if  they  will  not,  he  at  least  will  justify  God's  re- 
linquishment of  them.  The  chapters  throw  even  a 
brighter  light  upon  the  temper  and  habits  of  that 


299 


300 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


generation.  They  again  explore  Israel's  ancient  history 
for  causes  of  the  present  decline ;  and,  in  especial,  they 
cite  the  spiritual  experience  of  the  Father  of  the  nation, 
as  if  to  show  that  what  of  repentance  was  possible  for 
him  is  possible  for  his  posterity  also.  But  once  more 
all  hope  is  seen  to  be  vain ;  and  Hosea's  last  travail 
with  his  obstinate  people  closes  in  a  doom  even  more 
awful  than  its  predecessors. 

The  division  into  chapters  is  probably  correct ;  but 
while  chap.  xiii.  is  well-ordered  and  clear,  the  arrange- 
ment, and  in  parts  the  meaning,  of  chap.  xii.  are  very 
obscure. 


I.  The  People  and  Their  Father  Jacob. 

Rosea  xii. 

In  no  part  even  of  the  difficult  Book  of  Hosea  does 
the  sacred  text  bristle  with  more  problems.  It  may 
well  be  doubted  whether  the  verses  lie  in  their  proper 
order,  or,  if  they  do,  whether  we  have  them  entire  as 
they  came  from  the  prophet,  for  the  connection  is  not 
always  perceptible.^  We  cannot  believe,  however,  that 
the  chapter  is  a  bundle  of  isolated  oracles,  for  the 
analogy  between  Jacob  and  his  living  posterity  runs 
through  the  whole  of  it,*  and  the  refrain  that  God 
must  requite  upon  the  nation  their  deeds  is  found  both 
near  the  beginning  and  at  the  end  of  the  chapter.^  One 
is  tempted  to  take  the  two  fragments  about  the  Patriarch 
(w.  4,  5,  and  13  f.)  by  themselves,  and  the  more  so 
that  ver.  8  would  follow  so  suitably  on  either  ver.  2  or 


*  This  is  especially  true  of  w.  1 1  and  12. 

■  Even  in  the  most  detachable  portion,  w.  8-10^  where  the  hK 
of  ver.  9  seems  to  refer  to  the  of  ver.  4» 

■  Viz.  in  w.  3  and  15. 


Hos.  xii.] 


THE  FINAL  ARGUMENT 


ver.  3.  But  this  clue  is  not  sufficient ;  and  till  one 
more  evident  is  discovered,  it  is  perhaps  best  to  keep  to 
the  extant  arrangement.^ 

As  before,  the  argument  starts  from  the  falseness  o? 
Israel,  which  is  illustrated  in  the  faithlessness  of  their 
foreign  relations.  Ephraim  hath  compassed  Me  with  lies, 
and  the  house  of  Israel  with  deceit^  and  Judah  .  .  .2 
Ephraim  herds  the  wind^  and  hunts  the  sirocco.  All  day 
long  they  heap  up  falsehood  and  fraud:  *  they  strike  a 
bargain  with  Assyria^  and  carry  oil  to  Egypt^  as  Isaiah 
also  complained.^ 

Jehovah  hath  a  quarrel  with  Israel^  and  is  about  to 
visit  upon  Jacob  his  ways;  according  to  his  deeds  will 

*  Beer  indeed,  at  the  close  of  a  very  ingenious  analysis  of  the 
chapter  (Z.A.T.W.^  1893,  pp.  281  ff.),  claims  to  have  proved  that  it  con- 
tains "eine  wohlgegliederte  Rede  des  Propheten  *'  (p.  292).  But  he 
reaches  this  conclusion  only  by  several  forced  and  precarious  argu- 
ment*. Especially  unsound  do  his  pleas  appear  that  in  Sb  IS 
a  pUy  upon  the  root-meaning  of  \V2'2,  "lowly";  that  pJD,  in 
analogy  to  the  \'0'2^  of  ver.  4,  is  the  crude  original,  the  raw  material,, 
of  the  Ephraim  of  ver.  9 ;  and  that  IVMD  is  "  the  determined  time  * 
of  the  coming  judgment  on  Israel. 

•  Something  is  written  about  Judah  (remember  what  was  said  above 
about  Hosea's  treble  parallels),  but  the  text  is  too  obscure  for  transla- 
tion. The  theory  that  it  has  been  altered  by  a  later  Judaean  writer 
in  favour  of  his  own  people  is  probably  correct  :  the  Authorised  Ver- 
sion translates  in  favour  of  Judah;  so  too  Guthe  in  Kautzsch's 
BibeL  But  an  adverse  statement  is  required  by  the  parallel  clauses, 
and  the  Hebrew  text  allows  this :  Judah  is  still  wayward  with  God, 
and  with  the  Holy  One  who  is  faithful.  So  virtually  Ewald,  Hitzig, 
WQnsche,  Nowack  and  Cheyne.  But  Cornill  and  Wcllhausen  read  the 
second  half  of  the  clause  as  10^3  D''*^np"DI^,  profanes  himself  with 
Qedeshim  {Z.A.T.W.,  1887,  pp.  286  ff.). 

*  Why  should  not  Hosea,  the  master  of  many  forced  phrases,  have 
also  uttered  this  one  ?    This  in  answer  to  Wellhausen. 

*  So  LXX.,  reading  for 

•  Isa.  XXX.  6. 

•  Heb.  Judah,  but  surely  Israel  is  required  by  the  next  verse,  which 
is  a  play  upon  the  two  names  Israel  and  JacoU 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


He  requite  him.  In  the  womb  he  supplanted  his  brother^ 
and  in  his  man*s  strength  he  wrestled  with  God}  Yea, 
he  wrestled  with  the  Angel  and  prevailed ;  he  wept  and 
besought  of  Him  mercy.  At  Bethel  he  met  with  Him,  and 
there  He  spake  with  him  ^  (or  with  us — that  is,  in  the 
person  of  our  father).  •  .  So  thou  by  thy  God — by 
His  help,*  for  no  other  way  is  possible  except,  like  thy 
father,  through  wrestling  with  Him — shouldest  return  : 
keep  leal  love  and  justice,  and  wait  on  thy  God  without 
ceasing!*  To  this  passage  we  shall  return  in  dealing 
with  Hosea's  doctrine  of  Repentance. 

In  characteristic  fashion  the  discourse  now  swerves 
from  the  ideal  to  the  real  state  of  the  people. 

Canaan  !  So  the  prophet  nicknames  his  mercenary 
generation.*  With  false  balances  in  his  hand,  he  loves 
to  defraud.  For  Ephraim  said,  Ah  but  /  have  grown 
rich,  I  have  won  myself  wealth?  None  of  my  gains  can 
touch  me  with  guilt  which  is  sin,^    But  I,  Jehovah  thy  God 

^  Supplanted  is  *aqab,  the  presumable  root  of  Ja'aqab  (Jacob). 
Wrestled  with  God  is  Sarah  eth  Elohim,  the  presumable  origin  of 
Yisrael  (Israel). 

*  Heb.  us,  LXX.  them, 

■  Ver.  6— And  Jehovah  God  of  Hosts,  Jehovah  ts  His  memorial, 
t,$,  name — is  probably  an  insertion  for  the  reasons  mentioned 
above,  pp.  204  f. 

*  This,  the  most  natural  rendering  of  the  Hebrew  phrase,  has  been 
curiously  omitted  by  Beer,  who  says  that  can  only  mean  to 
thy  God,    Hitzig  :  "  durch  deinen  Gott." 

*  Some  take  these  words  as  addressed  by  Jehovah  at  Bethel  to  the 
Patriarch. 

*  So  nearly  all  interpreters.  Hitzig  aptly  quotes  Polybius,  De 
Virtute,  L.  ix. :  5iA  t^v  i/jL(pvTOv  ^oIvi^l  irXeove^ay,  k.t.X.  One  might 
also  refer  to  the  Romans'  idea  of  the  "  Punica  fides." 

'  Or,  full  man's  strength :  ct.  ver.  4. 

*  But  the  LXX.  reads  ;  All  his  gains  shah  not  be  found  of  him  because 
of  the  iniquity  which  he  has  sinned ;  and  Wellhausen  emends  this  to  I 
All  his  gain  sufficeth  not  for  the  guilt  which  it  has  incurred. 


Hos.  xiii.] 


THE  FINAL  ARGUMENT 


303 


from  the  land  of  Egypt — /  could  make  thee  dwell  in  tents 
agamy  as  in  the  days  of  the  Assembly  in  Horeb — I  could 
destroy  all  this  commercial  civilisation  of  thine,  and 
reduce  thee  to  thine  ancient  level  of  nomadic  life — and 
I  spake  to  the  prophets :  it  was  I  who  multiplied  vision ^ 
and  by  the  hand  of  the  prophets  gave  parables.  If  Gilead 
be  for  idolatry^  then  shall  it  become  vanity !  If  in 
Gilgal — Stone-Circle — they  sacrifice  bullocks^  stone-heaps 
shall  their  altars  become  among  the  furrows  of  the  field. 
One  does  not  see  the  connection  of  these  verses  with 
the  preceding.  But  now  the  discourse  oscillates  once 
more  to  the  national  father,  and  the  parallel  between 
his  own  and  his  people's  experience. 

And Jacob  fled  to  the  land'^  of  Aram ^  and  Israel  served 
for  a  wifCy  and  for  a  wife  he  herded  sheep.  And  by  a 
prophet  Jehovah  brought  Israel  up  from  Egypt^  and  by 
a  prophet  he  was  shepherded.  And  Ephraim  hath  given 
bitter  provocation ;  but  his  blood-guiltiness  shall  be  upon 
him^  and  his  Lord  shall  return  it  to  him. 

I  cannot  trace  the  argument  here. 

2  The  Last  JuDOMENit 

HosEA  xiii. — xiv.  i. 

The  crisis  draws  on.  On  the  one  hand  Israel's  sin, 
accumulating,  bulks  ripe  for  judgment.  On  the  other 
the  times  grow  more  fatal,  or  the  prophet  more  than 
ever  feels  them  so.  He  will  gather  once  again  the 
old  truths  on  the  old  lines — the  great  past  when 
Jehovah  was  God  alone,  the  descent  to  the  idols  and 
the  mushroom  monarchs  of  to-day,  the  people,  who 
once  had  been  strong,  sapped  by  luxury,  forgctlii], 


*  Others  to  demons. 

■  Field,  but  here  in  sense  ol  territory.    See  Hist.  Geog.^  pp.  79  t 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


stupid,  not  to  be  roused.  The  discourse  has  every 
mark  of  being  Hosea's  latest.  There  is  clearness  and 
definiteness  beyond  anything  since  chap.  iv.  There 
are  ease  and  lightness  of  treatment,  a  playful  sarcasm, 
as  if  the  themes  were  now  familiar  both  to  the  prophet 
and  his  audience.  But,  chiefly,  there  is  the  passion — 
so  suitable  to  last  words — of  how  different  it  all  might 
have  been,  if  to  this  crisis  Israel  had  come  with  store 
of  strength  instead  of  guilt.  How  these  years,  with 
their  opening  into  the  great  history  of  the  world,  might 
have  meant  a  birth  for  the  nation,  which  instead  was 
lying  upon  them  like  a  miscarried  child  in  the  mouth 
of  the  womb  I  It  was  a  fatality  God  Himself  could 
not  help  in.  Only  death  and  hell  remained.  Let 
them,  then,  have  their  way  I  Samaria  must  expiate 
her  guilt  in  the  worst  horrors  of  war. 

Instead  of  with  one  definite  historical  event,  this 
last  effort  of  Hosea  opens  more  naturally  with  a 
summary  of  all  Ephraim's  previous  history.  The 
tribe  had  been  the  first  in  Israel  till  they  took  to 
idols. 

Whenever  Ephraim  spake  there  was  trembling} 
Prince  ^  was  he  in  Israel;  but  he  fell  into  guilt  through 
the  Ba'al,  and  so — died.  Even  now  they  continue  to  sin 
and  make  them  a  smelting  of  their  silvery  idols  after  their 
own  model^  smith's  work  all  of  it.  To  them — to  such 
things — they  speak!  Sacrificing  men  kiss  calves!  In 
such  unreason  have  they  sunk.  They  cannot  endure. 
Therefore  shall  they  be  like  the  morning  cloud  and  like 
the  dew  that  early  vanishethy  like  chaff  which  whirleth 
up  from  the  floor  and  like  smoke  from  the  window.  And 

'  Uncertain. 

•  N^^:  for 

•  Read  with  Ewald  Dn^inD.    LXX.  read  H^IDra 


Hos.  xiii.] 


THE  FINAL  ARGUMENT 


I  was  thy  God^  from  the  land  of  Egypt ;  and  god  besides 
Me  thou  knowest  noty  nor  saviour  has  there  been  any  but 
Myself  I  shepherded^  thee  in  the  wilderness^  in  the 
land  of  droughts — long  before  they  came  among  the 
gods  of  fertile  Canaan.  But  once  they  came  hither, 
the  more  pasture  they  hadj  the  more  they  ate  themselves 
fully  and  the  more  they  ate  themselves  full^  the  more  was 
their  heart  uplifted^  so  they  forgat  Me.  So  that  I  must 
be  ^  to  them  like  a  lion^  like  a  leopard  on  the  way  I  must 
leap}  I  will  fall  on  them  like  a  bear  robbed  of  its  youngs 
and  will  tear  the  caul  of  their  hearts^  and  will  devour 
them  like  a  lion — wild  beasts  shall  rend  them!* 

When  He  hath  destroyed  thee^  O  Israel — who  then 
may  help  thee  ?  *  Where  is  thy  king  now  ?  that  he  may 
save  thee^  or  all  thy  princes?  that  they  may  rule  thee ;^ 
those  of  whom  thou  hast  said^  Give  me  a  king  and 
princes.  Aye,  I  give  thee  a  king  in  Mine  anger ^  and  I 
take  him  away  in  My  wrath  /  Fit  summary  of  the  short 
and  bloody  reigns  of  these  last  years. 

Gathered  is  Ephrainis  guilty  stored  up  is  his  sin.  The 
nation  is  pregnant — but  with  guilt  I  Birth  pangs  seize 
hiniy  but — the  figure  changes,  with  Hosea*s  own  swift- 
ness, from  mother  to  child — he  is  an  impracticable  son;^ 

*  Here  the  LXX.  makes  the  insertion  noted  on  pp.  203,  226. 

«  So  LXX.,  yr\'V'\. 

*  Read  ^nSJ. 

*  nVk^^i<,  usually  taken  as  first  fut  of         to  lurk.    But  there  is  a 

root  of  common  use  in  Arabic,  sar,  to  spring  up  suddenly,  of  wine  into 
the  head  or  of  a  lion  on  its  prey  ;  sawar,  "  the  springer,"  is  one  of  the 
Arabic  names  for  lion. 

*  We  shall  treat  this  passage  later  in  connection  with  Hosea's 
doctrine  of  the  knowledge  of  God  ;  see  pp.  330  f. 

«  After  the  LXX. 

'  Read  with  Houtsma  ^IDDS^^ 

'  Literally  a  son  not  wise,  perhaps  a  name  given  to  children  whose 
birth  was  difficult. 

VOL.  L  20 


306 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


for  this  ts  no  time  to  stand  in  the  mouth  of  the 
womb.  The  years  that  might  have  been  the  nation's 
birth  are  by  their  own  folly  to  prove  their  death. 
Israel  lies  in  the  way  of  its  own  redemption — how 
truly  this  has  been  forced  home  upon  them  in  one 
chapter  after  another!  Shall  God  then  step  in  and 
work  a  deliverance  on  the  brink  of  death  ?  From  the 
hand  of  Sheol  shall  I  deliver  them  ?  from  death  shall  I 
redeem  them  ?  Nay,  let  death  and  Sheol  have  their 
way.  Where  are  thy  plagues^  O  death  ?  where  thy 
destructiony  Sheol?  Here  with  them.  Compassion  is 
hid  from  Mine  eyes. 

This  great  verse  has  been  very  variously  rendered. 
Some  have  taken  it  as  a  promise  :  /  will  deliver  .  .  . 
/  will  redeem  ...  So  the  Septuagint  translated,  and 
St.  Paul  borrowed,  not  the  whole  Greek  verse,  but  its 
spirit  and  one  or  two  of  its  terms,  for  his  triumphant 
challenge  to  death  in  the  power  of  the  Resurrection  of 
Christ.^  As  it  stands  in  Hosea,  however,  the  verse 
must  be  a  threat.  The  last  clause  unambiguously 
abjures  mercy,  and  the  statement  that  His  people  will 
not  be  saved,  for  God  cannot  save  them,  is  one  in 
thorough  harmony  with  all  Hosea's  teaching.* 

An  appendix  follows  with  the  illustration  of  the 


*  The  LXX.  reads  :  IIoO  t]  SLkt}  <rou,  Bdvare ;  trov  rh  Kivrpov  aov,  fdrj ; 
But  Paul  says  :  UoO  aov,  Odvare,  rb  vikos  ;  irov  aov,  ddvare,  rb  Khrrpov ; 
I  Cor.  XV.  55  (Westcott  and  Hort's  Ed.). 

•  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  interpretations  of  verse  14. 

A.  Taken  as  a  threat  I.  **  It  is  I  who  redeemed  you  from  the 
grip  of  the  grave,  and  who  delivered  you  from  death — but  now  I  will 
call  up  the  words  {sic)  of  death  against  you ;  for  repentance  is  hid 
from  My  eyes."  So  Raschi.  2.  "  I  would  have  redeemed  them  from 
the  grip  of  Sheol,  etc.,  if  they  had  been  wise,  but  being  foolish  I  will 
bring  on  them  the  plagjes  of  death."  So  Kimchi,  Eichhorn,  Simson, 
etc.    3,  "  Should  I  "  or  "  shall  I  deliver  them  from  the  hand  of  Sheol, 


Hos.xiii.]  THE  FINAL  ARGUMENT 


307 


exact  form  which  doom  shall  take.  As  so  frequently 
with  Hosea,  it  opens  with  a  play  upon  the  people's 
name,  which  at  the  same  time  faintly  echoes  the 
opening  of  the  chapter. 

Although  he  among  his  brethren  ^  is  the  fruit-bearer — 
yaphri',  he  Ephraim — there  shall  come  an  east  wind^  a 
wind  of  Jehovah  rising  Jrom  the  wilderness^  so  that  his 
fountain  dry  up  and  his  spring  be  parched.  He — himself 
not  the  Assyrian,  but  Menahem,  who  had  to  send  gold 
to  the  Assyrian — shall  strip  the  treasury  of  all  its  precious 
jewels,  Samaria  must  bear  her  guilt :  for  she  hath 
rebelled  against  her  God,  To  this  simple  issue  has  the 
impenitence  of  the  people  finally  reduced  the  many 
possibilities  of  those  momentous  years  ;  and  their  last 
prophet  leaves  them  looking  forward  to  the  crash  which 
came  some  dozen  years  later  in  the  invasion  and 
captivity  of  the  land.  They  shall  fall  by  the  sword ;  their 
infants  shall  be  dashed  in  pieces^  and  their  women  with 
child  ripped  up.  Horrible  details,  but  at  that  period 
certain  to  follow  every  defeat  in  war. 


redeem  them  from  death  ?  "  etc.,  as  in  the  text  above.  So  Wfinsche, 
Wellhausen,  Guthe  in  Kautzsch's  Bibel^  etc. 

B.  Taken  as  a  promise.  "  From  the  hand  of  Sheol  I  will  deliver 
them,  from  death  redeem  them,"  etc.  So  Umbreit,  Ewald,  Hitzig  and 
Authorised  and  Revised  English  Versions.  In  this  case  repentance 
in  the  last  clause  must  be  taken  as  resentment  (Ewald).  But,  as 
Ewald  sees,  the  whole  verse  must  then  be  put  in  a  parenthesis,  as  an 
ejaculation  of  promise  in  the  midst  of  a  context  that  only  threatens. 
Some  without  change  of  word  render :  "  I  will  be  thy  plagues,  O 
death?  I  will  be  thy  sting,  O  hell."  So  the  Authorised  English 
Versioa.  ^  Text  doubtful. 


CHAPTER  XX 


IVILL  BE  AS  THE  DEW 
HosEA  xiv.  2-IO. 

LIKE  the  Book  of  Amos,  the  Book  of  Hosea, 
after  proclaiming  the  people's  inevitable  doom, 
turns  to  a  blessed  prospect  of  their  restoration  to 
favour  with  God.  It  will  be  remembered  that  we 
decided  aga^'nst  the  authenticity  of  such  an  epilogue 
in  the  Book  of  Amos  ;  and  it  may  now  be  asked,  how 
can  we  come  to  any  other  conclusion  with  regard  to  the 
similar  peroration  in  the  Book  of  Hosea?  For  the 
following  reasons. 

We  decided  against  the  genuineness  of  the  closing 
verses  of  Amos,  because  their  sanguine  temper  is 
opposed  to  the  temper  of  the  whole  of  the  rest  of  the 
book,  and  because  they  neither  propose  any  ethical 
conditions  for  the  attainment  of  the  blessed  future, 
nor  in  their  picture  of  the  latter  do  they  emphasise  one 
single  trace  of  the  justice,  or  the  purity,  or  the  social 
kindliness,  on  which  Amos  has  so  exclusively  insisted 
as  the  ideal  relations  of  Israel  to  Jehovah.  It  seemed 
impossible  to  us  that  Amos  could  imagine  the  perfect 
restoration  of  his  people  in  the  terms  only  of  requickened 
nature,  and  say  nothing  about  righteousness,  truth  and 
mercy  towards  the  poor.  The  prospect  which  now 
cIuSls  his  book  is  psychologically  alien  to  him,  and, 

308 


Hos.  xiv.  2-10.]    "/  WILL  BE  AS  THE  DEW"* 


309 


being  painted  in  the  terms  of  later  prophecy,  may  be 
judged  to  have  been  added  by  some  prophet  of  the 
Exile,  speaking  from  the  standpoint,  and  with  the 
legitimate  desires,  of  his  own  day. 

But  the  case  is  very  different  for  this  epilogue  in 
Hosea.  In  the  first  place,  Hosea  has  not  only  con- 
tinually preached  repentance,  and  been,  from  his  whole 
affectionate  temper  of  mind,  unable  to  believe  repentance 
impossible  ;  but  he  has  actually  predicted  the  restoration 
of  his  people  upon  certain  well-defined  and  ethical 
conditions.  In  chap.  ii.  he  has  drawn  for  us  in  de- 
tail the  whole  prospect  of  God^s  successful  treatment 
of  his  erring  spouse.  Israel  should  be  weaned  from 
their  sensuousness  and  its  accompanying  trust  in  idols 
by  a  severe  discipline,  which  the  prophet  describes  in 
terms  of  their  ancient  wanderings  in  the  wilderness. 
They  should  be  reduced,  as  at  the  beginning  of  their 
history,  to  moral  converse  with  their  God  ;  and  abjuring 
the  Ba'alim  (later  chapters  imply  also  their  foreign 
allies  and  foolish  kings  and  princes)  should  return  to 
Jehovah,  when  He,  having  proved  that  these  could  not 
give  them  the  fruits  of  the  land  they  sought  after, 
should  Himself  quicken  the  whole  course  of  nature  to 
bless  them  with  the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  the  friend- 
liness even  of  the  wild  beasts. 

Now  in  the  epilogue  and  its  prospect  of  Israel's 
repentance  we  find  no  feature,  physical  or  moral, 
which  has  not  already  been  furnished  by  these  previous 
promises  of  the  book.  All  their  ethical  conditions  are 
provided ;  nothing  but  what  they  have  conceived  of 
blessing  is  again  conceived.  Israel  is  to  abjure  sense- 
less sacrifice  and  come  to  Jehovah  with  rational  and 
contrite   confession.*    She  is  to  abjure    her  foreign 


'  Cf.  vi.  6,  etc 


310  THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


alliances.*  She  is  to  trust  in  the  fatherly  love  of  her 
God.^  He  is  to  heal  her,'  and  His  anger  is  to  turn 
away.*  He  is  to  restore  nature,  just  as  described  in 
chap,  ii.,  and  the  scenery  of  the  restoration  is  borrowed 
from  Hosea's  own  Galilee.  There  is,  in  short,  no 
phrase  or  allusion  of  which  we  can  say  that  it  is  alien 
to  the  prophet's  style  or  environment,  while  the  very 
keynotes  of  his  book — return^  backsliding^  idols  the 
ivork  of  our  hands^  such  pity  as  a  father  hath^  and  perhaps 
even  the  answer  or  converse  of  verse  9 — are  all  struck 
once  more. 

The  epilogue  then  is  absolutely  different  from  the 
epilogue  to  the  Book  of  Amos,  nor  can  the  present 
expositor  conceive  of  the  possibility  of  a  stronger  case 
for  the  genuineness  of  any  passage  of  Scripture.  The 
sole  difficulty  seems  to  be  the  place  in  which  we  find 
it — a  place  where  its  contradiction  to  the  immediately 
preceding  sentence  of  doom  is  brought  out  into  relief. 
We  need  not  suppose,  however,  that  it  was  uttered  by 
Hosea  in  immediate  proximity  to  the  latter,  nor  even 
that  it  formed  his  last  word  to  Israel.  But  granting 
only  (as  the  above  evidence  obliges  us  to  do)  that  it  is 
the  prophet's  own,  this  fourteenth  chapter  may  have 
been  a  discourse  addressed  by  him  at  one  of  those 
many  points  when,  as  we  know,  he  had  some  hope  of 
the  people's  return.  Personally,  I  should  think  it 
extremely  likely  that  Hosea's  ministry  closed  with  that 
final,  hopeless  proclamation  in  chap.  xiii. :  no  other 
conclusion  was  possible  so  near  the  fall  of  Samaria, 
and  the  absolute  destruction  of  the  Northern  Kingdom. 
But  Hosea  had  already  in  chap.  ii.  painted  the  very 


*  Cf.  xii.  2,  etc. 

•  Cf.  i.  7 ;  ii.  22,  25. 


•  Cf.  xi.  4. 

*  Ci.  xi.  8,  9. 


Hos.  xiv.  2-10.]    -/  WILL  BE  AS  THE  DEW 


3" 


opposite  issue  as  a  possible  ideal  for  his  people ;  and 
during  some  break  in  those  years  when  their  insincerity 
was  less  obtrusive,  and  the  final  doom  still  uncertain, 
the  prophet's  heart  swung  to  its  natural  pole  in  the 
exhaustless  and  steadfast  love  of  God,  and  he  uttered 
his  unmingled  gospel.  That  either  himself  or  the 
unknown  editor  of  his  prophecies  should  have  placed 
it  at  the  very  end  of  his  book  is  not  less  than  what  we 
might  have  expected.  For  if  the  book  were  to  have 
validity  beyond  the  circumstances  of  its  origin,  beyond 
the  judgment  which  was  so  near  and  so  inevitable,  was 
it  not  right  to  let  something  else  than  the  proclamation 
of  this  latter  be  its  last  word  to  men  ?  was  it  not 
right  to  put  as  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  the 
ideal  eternally  valid  for  Israel — the  gospel  which  is 
ever  God's  last  word  to  His  people?^ 

At  some  point  or  other,  then,  in  the  course  of  his 
ministry,  there  was  granted  to  Hosea  an  open  vision 
like  to  the  vision  which  he  has  recounted  in  the  second 
chapter.    He  called  on  the  people  to  repent.  For 


•  Since  preparing  the  above  for  the  press  there  has  come  into 
my  hands  Professor  Cheyne's  "  Introduction "  to  the  new  edition 
of  Robertson  Smith's  The  Prophets  of  Israel^  in  which  (p.  xix.)  he 
reaches  with  regard  to  Hosea  xiv.  2-10  conclusions  entirely  opposite 
to  those  reached  above.  Professor  Cheyne  denies  the  passage  to 
Hosea  on  the  grounds  that  it  is  akin  in  language  and  imagery  and 
ideas  to  writings  of  the  age  which  begins  with  Jeremiah,  and  which 
among  other  works  includes  the  Song  of  Songs.  But,  as  has  been 
shown  above,  the  "language,  imagery  and  ideas"  are  all  akin  to 
what  Professor  Cheyne  admits  to  be  genuine  prophecies  of  Hosea  ; 
and  the  likeness  to  them  of,  e.g.^  Jer,  xxxi.  10-20  may  be  explained  on 
the  same  ground  as  so  much  else  in  Jeremiah,  by  the  influence  of 
Hosea.  The  allusion  in  ver.  3  suits  Hosea's  own  day  more  than 
Jeremiah's.  Nor  can  I  understand  what  Professor  Cheyne  means  by 
this:  "The  spirituality  of  the  tone  of  vers.  1-3  is  indeed  surprising 
(contrast  the  picture  in  Hos.  v.  6)."    Spirituality  surprising  in  the 


3" 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


once,  and  in  the  power  of  that  Love  to  which  he  had 
already  said  all  things  are  possible,  it  seemed  to  him  as 
if  repentance  came.  The  tangle  and  intrigue  of  his 
generation  fell  away ;  fell  away  the  reeking  sacrifices 
and  the  vain  show  of  worship.  The  people  turned  from 
their  idols  and  puppet-kings,  from  Assyria  and  from 
Egypt,  and  with  contrite  hearts  came  to  God  Himself, 
who,  healing  and  loving,  opened  to  them  wide  the  gates 
of  the  future.  It  is  not  strange  that  down  this  spiritual 
vista  the  prophet  should  see  the  same  scenery  as  daily 
filled  his  bodily  vision.  Throughout  Galilee  Lebanon  ^ 
dominates  the  landscape.  You  cannot  lift  your  eyes  from 
any  spot  of  Northern  Israel  without  resting  them  upon 
the  vast  mountain.  From  the  unhealthy  jungles  of 
the  Upper  Jordan,  the  pilgrim  lifts  his  heart  to  the 
cool  hill  air  above,  to  the  ever-green  cedars  and  firs, 
to  the  streams  and  waterfalls  that  drop  like  silver  chains 
off*  the  great  breastplate  of  snow.  From  Esdraelon 
and  every  plain  the  peasants  look  to  Lebanon  to 
store  the  clouds  and  scatter  the  rain ;  it  is  not  from 
heaven  but  from  Hermon  that  they  expect  the  dew, 


book  that  contains  I  will  have  love  and  not  sacrifice,  and  the  know- 
ledge of  God  rather  than  burnt-offerings  "  I  The  verse,  v.  6,  he  would 
contrast  with  xiv.  I -3  is  actually  one  in  which  Hosea  says  that  when 
they  go  with  flocks  and  herds  "  Israel  shall  not  find  God  1  He  says 
that  "to  understand  Hosea  aright  we  must  omit  it"  {i.e.  the  whole 
epilogue).  But  after  the  argument  I  have  given  above  it  will  be  plain 
that  if  we  "understand  Hosea  aright  "  we  have  every  reason  not  "  to 
omit  it"  His  last  contention,  that  "  to  have  added  anything  to  the 
stem  warning  in  xiii.  16  would  have  robbed  it  of  half  its  force,"  is 
fully  met  by  the  considerations  stated  above  on  p.  310. 

*  By  Lebanon  in  the  fourteenth  chapter  and  almost  always  in  the 
Old  Testament  we  must  understand  not  the  western  range  now  called 
Lebanon,  for  that  makes  no  impression  on  the  Holy  Land,  its  bulk 
lying  too  far  to  the  north,  but  Hermon,  the  southmost  and  highest 
summits  of  Anti-Lebanon.    See  Hist.  Geo^.,  pp.  ^ij  t 


Hos.xiv.2-io.]    "7  WILL  BE  AS  THE  DEW 


313 


their  only  hope  in  the  long  drought  of  summer. 
Across  Galilee  and  in  Northern  Ephraim,  across 
Bashan  and  in  Northern  Gilead,  across  Hauran  and 
on  the  borders  of  the  desert,  the  mountain  casts  its 
spell  of  power,  its  lavish  promise  of  life.^  Lebanon 
is  everywhere  the  summit  of  the  land,  and  there  are 
points  from  which  it  is  as  dominant  as  heaven. 

No  wonder  then  that  our  northern  prophet  painted 
the  blessed  future  in  the  poetry  of  the  Mountain — its 
air,  its  dew  and  its  trees.  Other  seers  were  to  behold, 
in  the  same  latter  days,  the  mountain  of  the  Lord  above 
the  tops  of  the  mountains  ;  the  ordered  city,  her  stead- 
fast walls  salvation,  and  her  open  gates  praise  ;  the 
wealth  of  the  Gentiles  flowing  into  her,  profusion  of 
flocks  for  sacrifice,  profusion  of  pilgrims ;  the  great 
Temple  and  its  solemn  services;  and  the  glory  of  Lebanon 
shall  come  unto  thee y  fir-tree  and  pine  and  box-tree  together^ 
to  beautify  the  place  of  My  Sanctuary?  But,  with  his 
home  in  the  north,  and  weary  of  sacrifice  and  ritual, 
weary  of  everything  artificial  whether  it  were  idols  or 
puppet-kings,  Hosea  turns  to  the  glory  of  Lebanon  as 
it  lies,  untouched  by  human  tool  or  art,  fresh  and  full 
of  peace  from  God's  own  hand.  Like  that  other  seer 
of  Galilee,  Hosea  in  his  vision  of  the  future  saw  no 
temple  therein?  His  sacraments  are  the  open  air,  the 
mountain  breeze,  the  dew,  the  vine,  the  lilies,  the  pines ; 
and  what  God  asks  of  men  are  not  rites  nor  sacrifices, 
but  life  and  health,  fragrance  and  fruitfulness,  beneath 
the  shadow  and  the  Dew  of  His  Presence. 


'  Full  sixty  miles  off,  in  the  Jcbel  Druze,  the  ancient  Greek  amphi* 
theatres  were  so  arranged  that  Hermon  might  fill  the  horizon  of  the 
spectators. 

•  Isa.  Ix.  13. 

■  Revelation  of  St.  John  xxi.  23. 


314 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Return^  O  Israel^  to  Jehovah  thy  God^  for  thou  hast 
stumbled  by  thine  iniquity.  Take  with  you  words  ^  and 
return  unto  Jehovah,  Say  unto  Him^  Remove  iniquity 
altogether^  and  take  good^  so  will  we  render  the  calves  * 
of  our  lips  ;  confessions,  vows,  these  are  the  sacrificial 
offerings  God  delights  in.  Which  vows  are  now 
registered  : — 

Asshur  shall  not  save  us; 

We  will  not  ride  upon  horses  (from  Egypt) ; 

And  we  will  say  no  more^  "  O  our  God^^  to  the 

work  of  our  hands  : 
For  in  Thee  the  fatherless  findeth  a  father^ s  pity. 

Alien  help,  whether  in  the  protection  of  Assyria  or 
the  cavalry  which  Pharaoh  sends  in  return  for  Israel's 
homage;  alien  gods,  whose  idols  we  have  ourselves 
made, — we  abjure  them  all,  for  we  remember  how 
Thou  didst  promise  to  show  a  father's  love  to  the 
people  whom  Thou  didst  name,  for  their  mother's  sins, 
Lo-Ruhamah,  the  Unfathered.    Then  God  replies : — 

/  will  heal  their  backsliding^ 

I  will  love  them  freely  : 

For  Mine  anger  is  turned  away  from  them. 

I  will  be  as  the  dew  unto  Israel : 

He  shall  blossom  as  the  lily^ 

And  strike  his  roots  deep  as  Lebanon; 

His  branches  shall  spread^ 

And  his  beauty  shall  be  as  the  olive-tree^ 

And  his  smell  as  Lebanon — 

smell  of  clear  mountain  air  with  the  scent  of  the 


'  On  all  this  exhortation  see  below,  p.  343. 

•  LXX,  fruit,       for  D''1D ;  the  whole  verse  is  obscure. 


Hos,  xiv.  2-IO.]    "/  WILL  BE  AS  THE  DEW 


pines  upon  it.  The  figure  in  the  end  of  ver.  6  seems 
forced  to  some  critics,  who  have  proposed  various 
emendations,  such  as  ^Mike  the  fast-rooted  trees  of 
Lebanon,"^  but  any  one  who  has  seen  how  the  moun- 
tain himself  rises  from  great  roots,  cast  out  across  the 
land  like  those  of  some  giant  oak,  will  not  feel  it 
necessary  to  mitigate  the  metaphor. 
The  prophet  now  speaks  : — 

They  shall  return  and  dwell  in  His  shadow. 
They  shall  live  well-watered  as  a  garden^ 
Till  they  flourish  like  the  vine^ 
And  be  fragrant  like  the  wine  of  Lebanon} 

God  speaks : — 


*  So  Guthe ;  some  other  plant  Wellhausen,  who  for  ^^  reads 

*  Ver.  8  obviously  needs  emendation.  The  Hebrew  text  contains 
at  least  one  questionable  construction,  and  gives  no  sense  :  "  They 
that  dwell  in  his  shadow  shall  turn,  and  revive  corn  and  flourish 
like  the  vine,  and  his  fame,"  etc.  To  cultivate  com  and  be  them- 
selves like  a  vine  is  somewhat  mixed.  The  LXX.  reads  :  imaTp^xpoviTtP 
Kai  KadLovvrai  {fir6  t7)v  aKhrrjv  avToVy  ^-f^aovrai  Kai  ixedvad-qaovroLL  (tLti^  ' 
Koi  i^avdi^crei  d/uLireXos  fxvrjfiSdvvqv  avTOv  ws  oTvos  Ai^dvov.  It  removes 
the  grammatical  difficulty  from  clause  I,  which  then  reads  -ll^^^l  ^-^^r 
*fp*i2  •  the  supplied  vau  may  easily  have  dropped  after  the  final  vau 
of  the  previous  word.  In  the  2nd  clause  the  LXX.  takes  VH^  as  an 
intransitive,  which  is  better  suited  to  the  other  verbs,  and  adds 
Kai  fjL€$v(Tdrj<TOPTai,  (a  form  that  may  have  easily  slipped  from 
the  Hebrew  text,  through  its  likeness  to  the  preceding  IM^I).  And 
thsy  shall  be  well-watered.  After  this  it  is  probable  that  pi  should 
read  JiD.  In  the  3rd  clause  the  Hebrew  text  may  stand.  In  the 
4th  "IDT  may  not,  as  many  propose,  be  taken  for  D"I!DT  and  translated 
their  perfume)  but  the  parallelism  makes  it  now  probable  that  we 
nave  a  verb  here;  and  if  "IDT  in  the  Hiph.  has  the  sense  to  make  a 
perfume  (cf.  Isa.  Ixvi.  3),  there  is  no  reason  against  the  Kai  being 
used  in  the  intransitive  sense  here.  In  the  LXX,  for  fudvadri' 
^orrai  Q'  reads  aTrfpixOifitrwrax, 


3i6 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


EphraifHy  what  has  he  ^  to  do  any  more  with  idols  ! 
I  have  spoken  for  him,  and  I  will  look  after  him. 
I  am  like  an  ever-green  fir; 
From  Me  is  thy  fruit  found. 

This  version  is  not  without  its  difficulties ;  but  the 
alternative  that  God  is  addressed  and  Ephraim  is  the 
speaker — Ephraim  says,  What  have  I  to  do  any  more 
with  idols  ?  I  answer  and  look  to  Him :  I  am  like  a 
green  fir-tree;  from  me  is  Thy  fruit  found — has  even 
greater  difficulties,^  although  it  avoids  the  unusual 
comparison  of  the  Deity  with  a  tree.  The  difficulties 
of  both  interpretations  may  be  overcome  by  dividing 
the  verse  between  God  and  the  people  : — 

Ephraim  I  what  has  he  to  do  any  more  with  idols  : 
I  have  spoken  for  him,  and  will  look  after  him. 

In  this  case  the  speaking  would  be  intended  in  the 
same  sense  as  the  speaking  in  chap.  ii.  to  the 
heavens  and  earth,  that  they  might  speak  to  the  corn 
and  wine?    Then  Ephraim  repHes : — 

/  am  like  an  ever-green  fir-tree; 
From  me  is  Thy  fruit  found. 


>  LXX. 

•  This  alternative,  which  Robertson  Smith  adopted,  "  though  not 
without  some  hesitation"  {Prophets^  413)  is  that  which  follows  the 
Hebrew  text,  reading  in  the  first  clause  and  not,  like  LXX., 
and  avoids  the  unusual  figure  of  comparing  Jehovah  to  a  tree.  But 
it  does  not  account  for  the  singular  emphasis  laid  in  the  second 
clause  on  the  first  personal  pronoun,  and  implies  that  God,  whose 
name  has  not  for  several  verses  been  mentioned,  is  meant  by  the 
mere  personal  suffix,  "  I  will  look  to  Him.**  Wellhausen  suggests 
changing  the  second  clause  to  /  am  his  Ami  and  his  Aschera. 

•  n:i;,  ii,  23, 


Hos.xiv.2-io.]    "/  WILL  BE  AS  THE  DEW 


But  the  division  appears  artificial,  and  the  text  does 
not  suggest  that  the  two  jTs  belong  to  different 
speakers.    The  first  version  therefore  is  the  preferable. 

Some  one  has  added  a  summons  to  later  genera- 
tions to  lay  this  book  to  heart  in  face  of  their  own 
problems  and  sins.    May  we  do  so  for  ourselves  I 

Who  is  wise^  that  he  understands  these  things  ? 
Intelligent^  that  he  knows  them  ? 

Yeaj  straight  are  the  ways  of  Jehovah, 
And  the  righteous  shall  walk  therein,  but  sinners 
shall  stumble  upon  them. 


CHAPTER  XXI 


THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  GOD 
HosEA  passim, 

E  have  now  finished  the  translation  and  detailed 


V  V  exposition  of  Hosea's  prophecies.  We  have 
followed  his  minute  examination  of  his  people's  character; 
his  criticism  of  his  fickle  generation's  attempts  to 
repent ;  and  his  presentation  of  true  religion  in  contrast 
to  their  shallow  optimism  and  sensual  superstitions. 
We  have  seen  an  inwardness  and  spirituality  of  the 
highest  kind — a  love  not  only  warm  and  mobile,  but 
nobly  jealous,  and  in  its  jealousy  assisted  by  an 
extraordinary  insight  and  expertness  in  character. 
Why  Hosea  should  be  distinguished  above  all  prophets 
for  inwardness  and  spirituality  must  by  this  time  be 
obvious  to  us.  From  his  remote  watchfulness,  Amos 
had  seen  the  nations  move  across  the  world  as  the 
stars  across  heaven ;  had  seen,  within  Israel,  class 
distinct  from  class,  and  given  types  of  all :  rich  and 
poor ;  priest,  merchant  and  judge ;  the  panic-stricken, 
the  bully  ;  the  fraudulent  and  the  unclean.  The  obser- 
vatory of  Amos  was  the  world,  and  the  nation.  But 
Hosea's  was  the  home ;  and  there  he  had  watched  a 
human  soul  decay  through  every  stage  from  innocence 
to  corruption.  It  was  a  husband's  study  of  a  wife 
which  made  Hosea  the  most  inward  of  all  the  prophets. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  GocTs  word  by  him} 


318 


Hosea.] 


THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  GOD 


319 


Among  the  subjects  in  the  subtle  treatment  of  which 
Hosea's  service  to  rehgion  is  most  original  and  con- 
spicuous, there  are  especially  three  that  deserve 
a  more  detailed  treatment  than  we  have  been  able 
to  give  them.  These  are  the  Knowledge  of  God, 
Repentance  and  the  Sin  against  Love.  We  may  devote 
a  chapter  to  each  of  them,  beginning  in  this  with  the 
most  characteristic  and  fundamental  truth  Hosea  gave 
to  religion — the  Knowledge  of  God. 

If  to  the  heart  there  be  one  pain  more  fatal  than 
another,  it  is  the  pain  of  not  being  understood.  That 
prevents  argument :  how  can  you  reason  with  one  who 
will  not  come  to  quarters  with  your  real  self?  It 
paralyses  influence  :  how  can  you  do  your  best  with 
one  who  is  blind  to  your  best  ?  It  stifles  Love ;  for 
how  dare  she  continue  to  speak  when  she  is  mistaken 
for  something  else  ?  Here  as  elsewhere  "  against 
stupidity  the  gods  themselves  fight  in  vain." 

This  anguish  Hosea  had  suffered.  As  closely  as 
two  souls  may  live  on  earth,  he  had  lived  with  Gomer. 
Yet  she  had  never  wakened  to  his  worth.  She  must 
have  been  a  woman  with  a  power  of  love,  or  such  a 
heart  had  hardly  wooed  her.  He  was  a  man  of  deep 
tenderness  and  exquisite  powers  of  expression.  His 
tact,  his  delicacy,  his  enthusiasm  are  sensible  in  every 
chapter  of  his  book.  Gomer  must  have  tasted  them 
all  before  Israel  did.  Yet  she  never  knew  him.  It 
was  her  curse  that,  being  married,  she  was  not  awake 
to  the  meaning  of  marriage,  and,  being  married  to 
Hosea,  she  never  appreciated  the  holy  tenderness  and 
heroic  patience  which  were  deemed  by  God  not  un- 
worthy of  becoming  a  parable  of  His  own. 


320 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Now  I  think  we  do  not  go  far  wrong  if  we  conclude 
that  it  was  partly  this  long  experience  of  a  soul  that 
loved,  but  had  neither  conscience  nor  ideal  in  her  love, 
which  made  Hosea  lay  such  frequent  and  pathetic 
emphasis  upon  Israel's  ignorance  of  Jehovah.  To  have 
his  character  ignored,  his  purposes  baffled,  his  gifts 
unappreciated,  his  patience  mistaken — this  was  what 
drew  Hosea  into  that  wonderful  sympathy  with  the 
heart  of  God  towards  Israel  which  comes  out  in  such 
passionate  words  as  these  :  My  people  perish  for  lack 
of  knowledge}  There  is  no  troth,  nor  leal  love,  nor 
knowledge  of  God  in  the  land}  They  have  not  known 
the  Lord}  She  did  not  know  that  I  gave  her  corn  and 
wine}  They  knew  not  that  I  healed  them}  For  now, 
because  thou  hast  rejected  knowledge,  I  will  reject  thee} 
I  U)ill  have  leal  love  and  not  sacrifice,  and  the  knowledge 
of  God  rather  than  burnt-offerings}  Repentance  con- 
sists in  change  of  knowledge.  And  the  climax  of  the 
new  life  which  follows  is  again  knowledge :  /  will 
betroth  thee  to  Me,  and  thou  shalt  know  the  Lord}  Israel 
shall  cry,  My  God,  we  know  Thee} 

To  understand  what  Hosea  meant  by  knowledge  we 
must  examine  the  singularly  supple  word  which  his 
language  lent  him  to  express  it.  The  Hebrew  root 
"Yadh'a,"^®  almost  exclusively  rendered  in  the  Old 
Testament  by  the  English  verb  to  know,  is  employed 
of  the  many  processes  of  knowledge,  for  which  richer 
languages  have  separate  terms.  It  is  by  turns  to  per- 
ceive, be  aware  of,  recognise,  understand  or  conceive, 


'  iv.  6. 
■  iv.  I. 
•t.4. 
•it  lo. 


•  xi.  3. 

•  iv.  6. 

•  vi6. 


•  ii.  22. 

•  viii.  2. 


Hosea.]  THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  GOD 


experience  and  be  expert  in/  But  there  is  besides 
nearly  always  a  practical  effectiveness,  and  in  connection 
with  religious  objects  a  moral  consciousness. 

The  barest  meaning  is  to  be  aware  that  something  is 
present  or  has  happened,  and  perhaps  the  root  meant 
simply  to  see.^  But  it  was  the  frequent  duty  of  the 
prophets  to  mark  the  difference  between  perceiving  a 
thing  and  laying  it  to  heart.  Isaiah  speaks  of  the 
people  seeing^  but  not  so  as  to  know  ;  ^  and  Deuteronomy 
renders  the  latter  sense  by  adding  with  the  hearty  which 
to  the  Hebrews  was  the  seat,  not  of  the  feeling,  but  of 
the  practical  intellect  \  ^  And  thou  knowest  with  thy  heart 
that  as  a  man  chastiseth  his  son^  so  the  Lord  your  God 
chastiseth  you}  Usually,  however,  the  word  know 
suffices  by  itself.  This  practical  vigour  naturally  de- 
veloped in  such  directions  as  intimacy^  conviction^ 
experience  and  wisdom.  Job  calls  his  familiars  my 
knowers ;  •  of  a  strong  conviction  he  says,  /  know  that 
my  Redeemer  liveth^  and  referring  to  wisdom.  We  are 
of  yesterday  and  know  not ;  ®  while  Ecclesiastes  says. 
Whoso  keepeth  the  commandment  shall  know — that  is, 
experience^  or  suffer — no  evil!*  But  the  verb  rises  into  a 
practical  sense — to  the  knowledge  that  leads  a  man  to 
regard  or  care  for  its  object.  Job  uses  the  verb  know 
when  he  would  say,  /  do  not  care  for  my  life ;    and  in 


•  The  Latin  videre^  scir$y  noscen,  cognosctn^  intelltgtr$^  sapirt  and 
perittis  esse, 

^  Cf.  the  Greek  olSa  from  elSeuf, 

•  vi.  9. 

•  See  above,  pp.  258,  275 ;  and  below,  p.  323. 

•  viii.  5  :  cf.  xxix.  3  (Eng.     Jehovah  did  not  give  you  a  heart  to  know, 

•  Job  xix.  13:  still  more  close,  of  course,  the  intimacy  between  the 
sexes  for  which  the  verb  is  so  often  used  in  the  Old  Testament. 

'  xix.  25  :  cf.  Gen.  xx.  6. 

■  viii.  9.  •  viii.  5   cf.  Hosea  ix.  7.  *  ix.  2i. 

VOL.  L  oj 


322 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


the  description  of  the  sons  of  Eli,  that  they  were  sons  oj 
Beltalj  and  did  not  know  God,  it  means  that  they  did  not 
have  any  regard  for  Him.^  Finally,  there  is  a  moral 
use  of  the  word  in  which  it  approaches  the  meaning 
of  conscience  :  Their  eyes  were  opened^  and  they  knew 
that  they  were  naked?  They  were  aware  of  this  before, 
but  they  felt  it  now  with  a  new  sense.  Also  it  is  the 
mark  of  the  awakened  and  the  fullgrown  to  know,  or 
to  feel,  the  difference  between  good  and  evil.' 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  word  for  knowing,  the  utter- 
ance of  which  almost  invariably  starts  a  moral  echo, 
whose  very  sound,  as  it  were,  is  haunted  by  sympathy 
and  by  duty.  It  is  knowledge,  not  as  an  effort  of,  so 
much  as  an  effect  upon,  the  mind.  It  is  not  to  know 
so  as  to  see  the  fact  of,  but  to  know  so  as  to  feel  the 
force  of ;  knowledge,  not  as  acquisition  and  mastery, 
but  as  impression,  passion.  To  quote  Paul's  distinction, 
it  is  not  so  much  the  apprehending  as  the  being  appre- 
hended. It  leads  to  a  vivid  result — either  warm 
appreciation  or  change  of  mind  or  practical  effort.  It 
is  sometimes  the  talent  conceived  as  the  trust,  some- 
times the  enlistment  of  all  the  affections.  It  is 
knowledge  that  is  followed  by  shame,  or  by  love,  or 
by  reverence,  or  by  the  sense  of  a  duty.  One  sees 
that  it  closely  approaches  the  meaning  of  our  "con- 
science,'* and  understands  how  easily  there  was  de- 
veloped from  it  the  evangelical  name  for  repentance, 
Metanoia — that  is,  change  of  mind  under  a  new  impres- 
sion of  facts. 


'  I  Sam.  ii.  12.    A  similar  meaning  is  probably  to  be  attached  to 
the  word  in  Gen.  xxxix.  6  :  Potiphar  had  no  thought  or  care  for  any- 
thing that  was  in  Joseph's  hand.    Cf.  Prov.  ix.  13 ;  zxvii.  23 
Job  XXXV.  15. 

*  Gen.  iii*  7.  •  Gen.  iii.  5 ;  Isa.  vii.  15,  etc 


Hosea.]  THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  GOD 


323 


There  are  three  writers  who  thus  use  knowledge 
as  the  key  to  the  Divine  life — in  the  Old  Testament 
Hosea  and  the  author  of  Deuteronomy,  in  the  New 
Testament  St.  John.  We  likened  Amos  to  St.  John 
the  Baptist :  it  is  not  only  upon  his  similar  tempera- 
ment, but  far  more  upon  his  use  of  the  word  knowledge 
for  spiritual  purposes,  that  we  may  compare  Hosea  to 
St.  John  the  Evangelist. 

Hosea's  chief  charge  against  the  people  is  one  of 
stupidity.  High  and  low  they  are  a  people  without 
intelligence}  Once  he  defines  this  as  want  of  political 
wisdom  :  Ephraim  is  a  silly  dove  without  heart,  or, 
as  we  should  say,  without  brains ;  ^  and  again,  as 
insensibility  to  every  ominous  fact :  Strangers  have 
devoured  his  strength,  and  he  knoweth  it  not;  yea,  grey 
hairs  are  scattered  upon  him,  and  he  knoweth  it  not^  or, 
as  we  should  say,  lays  it  not  to  heart. 

But  Israel's  most  fatal  ignorance  is  of  God  Himself. 
This  is  the  sign  and  the  cause  of  every  one  of  their 
defects.  There  is  no  troth,  nor  leal  love,  nor  knoivledge 
of  God  in  the  land}  They  have  not  known  the  LORD} 
They  have  not  known  Me, 

With  the  causes  of  this  ignorance  the  prophet  has 
dealt  most  explicitly  in  the  fourth  chapter.*  They 
are  two :  the  people's  own  vice  and  the  negligence  of 
their  priests.  Habitual  vice  destroys  a  people's  brains. 
Harlotry,  wine  and  new  wine  take  away  the  heart  of  My 
people?    Lust,  for  instance,  blinds  them  to  the  domestic 

•  iv.  14,  ]n  Dr  :  if  the  original  meaning  of  ^3  be  to  get  between^ 
see  through  or  into,  so  discriminate,  understand,  then  inteUigence  is 
its  etymological  equivalent.  *  vii.  9.  *  v.  4. 

•  viL  II.    See  above,  p.  321,  n.  4.     *  iv.  I. 

•  For  exposition  of  this  chapter  see  above,  pp.  256  ft, 
»  iv,  U,  12,  LXX. 


324 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


consequences  of  their  indulgence  in  the  heathen 
worship,  and  so  the  stupid  people  come  to  their  end} 
Again,  their  want  of  political  wisdom  is  due  to  their 
impurity,  drunkenness  and  greed  to  be  rich.*  Let 
those  take  heed  who  among  ourselves  insist  that  art  is 
independent  of  moral  conditions — that  v/it  and  fancy 
reach  their  best  and  bravest  when  breaking  from  any 
law  of  decency.  They  lie  :  such  licence  corrupts  the 
natural  intelligence  of  a  people,  and  robs  them  of 
insight  and  imagination. 

Yet  Hosea  sees  that  all  the  fault  does  not  lie  with 
the  common  people.  Their  teachers  are  to  blame, 
priest  and  prophet  alike,  for  both  stumble^  and  it  is  true 
that  a  people  shall  be  like  its  priests.^  The  priests 
have  rejected  knowledge  and  forgotten  the  Torah  of  their 
God ;  they  think  only  of  the  ritual  of  sacrifice  and  the 
fines  by  which  they  fill  their  mouths.  It  was,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  sin  of  Israel's  religion  in  the  eighth  century. 
To  the  priests  religion  was  a  mass  of  ceremonies 
which  satisfied  the  people's  superstitions  and  kept 
themselves  in  bread.  To  the  prophets  it  w^as  an 
equally  sensuous,  an  equally  mercenary  ecstasy.  But 
to  Hosea  religion  is  above  all  a  thing  of  the  intellect 
and  conscience  :  it  is  that  knowing  which  is  at  once 
common-sense,  plain  morality  and  the  recognition  by 
a  pure  heart  of  what  God  has  done  and  is  doing  in 
history.  Of  such  a  knowledge  the  priests  and  prophets 
are  the  stewards,  and  it  is  because  they  have  ignored 
their  trust  that  the  people  have  been  provided  with 
no  antidote  to  the  vices  that  corrupt  their  natural 
intelligence  and  make  them  incapable  of  seeing  God. 


iv.  14  f.    See  above,  pp.  258  f.  •  vii.  passim, 

•  iv.  4-9.    Above,  pp.  257  f. 


Hosea.] 


THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  GOD 


32s 


In  contrast  to  such  ignorance  Hosea  describes  the 
essential  temper  and  contents  of  a  true  understanding 
of  God.  Using  the  word  knowledge^  in  the  passive 
sense  characteristic  of  his  language,  not  so  much  the 
acquisition  as  the  impression  of  facts,  an  impression 
which  masters  not  only  a  man's  thoughts  but  his  heart 
and  will,  Hosea  describes  the  knowledge  of  God  as 
feeling,  character  and  conscience.  Again  and  again 
he  makes  it  parallel  to  loyalty,  repentance,  love  and 
service.  Again  and  again  he  emphasises  that  it  comes 
from  God  Himself.  It  is  not  something  which  men 
can  reach  by  their  own  endeavours,  or  by  the  mere 
easy  turning  of  their  fickle  hearts.  For  it  requires 
God  Himself  to  speak,  and  discipline  to  chasten. 
The  only  passage  in  which  the  knowledge  of  God  is 
described  as  the  immediate  prize  of  man's  own  pursuit 
is  that  prayer  of  the  people  on  whose  facile  religious- 
ness Hosea  pours  his  scorn.^  Let  us  know,  let  us 
follow  on  to  know  the  Lord^  he  heard  them  say,  and 
promise  themselves.  As  soon  as  we  seek  Him  we  shall 
find  Him.  But  God  replies  that  He  can  make  nothing 
of  such  ambitions  ;  they  will  pass  away  like  the  morn- 
ing cloud  and  the  early  dew.^  This  discarded  prayer, 
then,  is  the  only  passage  in  the  book  in  which  the 
knowledge  of  God  is  described  as  man's  acquisition. 
Elsewhere,  in  strict  conformity  to  the  temper  of  the 
Hebrew  word  to  know,  Hosea  presents  the  knowledge 
of  the  Most  High,  not  as  something  man  finds  out  for 
himself,  but  something  which  comes  down  on  him 
from  above. 

The  means  which  God  took  to  impress  Himself  upon 
the  heart  of  His  people  were,  according  to  Hosea,  the 


'  vi.  I  ff.    See  above,  pp.  263  ff. 


*  vi.  4. 


326 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


events  of  their  history.  Hosea,  indeed,  also  points  to 
another  means.  The  Torah  of  thy  God^  which  in  one 
passage*  he  makes  parallel  to  knowledge^  is  evidently 
the  body  of  instruction,  judicial,  ceremonial  and  social, 
which  has  come  down  by  the  tradition  of  the  priests. 
This  was  not  all  oral ;  part  of  it  at  least  was  already 
codified  in  the  form  we  now  know  as  the  Book  of  the 
Covenant.^  But  Hosea  treats  of  the  Torah  only  in 
connection  with  the  priests.  And  the  far  more  frequent 
and  direct  means  by  which  God  has  sought  to  reveal 
Himself  to  the  people  are  the  great  events  of  their 
past.  These  Hosea  never  tires  of  recalling.  More 
than  any  other  prophet,  he  recites  the  deeds  done  by 
God  in  the  origins  and  making  of  Israel.  So  numerous 
are  his  references  that  from  them  alone  we  could  almost 
rebuild  the  early  history.  Let  us  gather  them  together. 
The  nation's  father  Jacob  in  the  womb  overreached  his 
brother^  and  in  his  manhood  strove  with  God ;  yea^  he 
strove  with  the  Angel  and  he  overcame^  he  wept  and  sup^ 
f  Heated  Him  ;  at  Bethel  he  found  Him,  and  there  He  spake 
with  us — Jehovah  God  of  Hosts,  Jehovah  is  His  name} 


'  iv.  6.    See  above,  p.  257. 

*  See  above,  pp.  97  f.  On  the  other  doubtful  plirase,  viii.  12 — literally 
/  write  multitudes  of  My  Torah,  as  a  stranger  they  have  reckoned  it — 
no  argument  can  be  built ;  for  even  if  we  take  the  first  clause  as 
conditional  and  render,  Though  I  wrote  multitudes  of  My  Toroth^yet 
as  those  of  a  stranger  they  would  regard  them,  that  would  not  neces- 
sarily mean  that  no  TorOth  of  Jehovah  were  yet  written,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  might  equally  well  imply  that  some  at  least  had  been 
written. 

*  Or  was  overcome. 

*  xii.  4-6.  See  above,  p.  302.  LXX.  reads  they  supplicated  Me  .  .  . 
they  found  Me  .  .  .  He  spoke  with  them.  Many  propose  to  read  the 
last  clause  with  him.  The  passage  is  obscure.  Note  the  order  of  the 
events — the  wrestling  at  Peniel,  the  revelation  at  Bethel,  then  in 


Hosesu]  THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  GOD 


3^7 


.  .  .  And  Jacob  fled  to  the  territory^  of  AratHy  and  he 
served  for  a  wife^  and  for  a  wife  he  tended  sheep. 
And  by  a  prophet  Jehovah  brought  Israel  up  out  of 
Egypty  and  by  a  prophet  he  was  tended}  When  Israel 
was  young^  then  I  came  to  love  him^  and  out  of  Egypt 
I  called  My  son.^  As  often  as  I  called  to  them,  so  often 
did  they  go  from  Me :  ^  they  to  the  Baalim  kept  sacri- 
ficingf  and  to  images  offering  incense.  But  I  taught 
Ephraim  to  walky  taking  him  upon  Mine  ^  arms,  and 
they  did  not  know  that  I  nursed  them,^  ,  .  .  Like  grapes 
in  the  wilderness  I  found  Israel^  like  the  firstfruits  on  an 
early  fig-tree  I  saw  your  fathers;  but  they  went  to  Bdal^ 
Peor^  and  consecrated  themselves  to  the  Shame?  .  .  .  But 
I  am  Jehovah  thy  God  from  the  land  of  Egvpt^  and  gods 
besides  Me  thou  knowest  not,  and  Saviour  there  is  none 
but  Me,  I  knew  thee  in  the  wilderness,  in  the  land  of 
burning  heats.  But  the  more  pasture  they  had,  the  more 
they  fed  themselves  full;  as  they  fed  themselves  full  their 
heart  was  lifted  up :  therefore  they  forgat  Me?  .  .  .  / 
fehovah  thy  God  from  the  land  of  Egypt}^  And  all  this 
revelation  of  God  was  not  only  in  that  marvellous 


the  subsequent  passage  the  flight  to  Aram.  This  however  does  not 
prove  that  in  Hosea*s  information  the  last  happened  after  the  two 
first. 

•  TCWf  fields  here  used  in  its  political  sense :  cf.  Hist,  Geog.^  p.  79. 
Our  word  country^  now  meaning  territory  and  now  the  rural  as  op- 
posed to  the  urban  districts,  is  strictly  analogous  to  the  Hebrew  field, 

»  xil  13,  14. 
■  A  youth, 

•  LXX,  followed  by  many  critics,  his  sons.  But  My  son  is  a  better 
parallel  to  young  in  the  preceding  clause.    Or  trans,:  to  be  My  son, 

•  So  LXX.    See  p.  293.  '  xi.  1-3. 

•  So  rightly  LXX.  ■  ix.  10. 

•  xiii.  4-6. 

xii.  10.  Other  references  to  the  ancient  history  are  the  story 
of  Gibeah  and  the  Valley  of  Achor. 


328 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


history,  but  in  the  yearly  gifts  of  nature  and  even  in 
the  success  of  the  people's  commerce  :  She  knew  not  that 
it  was  I  who  have  given  her  the  com  and  the  wine  and 
the  oil,  and  silver  have  I  multiplied  to  her} 

This,  then,  is  how  God  gave  Israel  knowledge  of 
Himself.  First  it  broke  upon  the  Individual,  the 
Nation's  Father.  And  to  him  it  had  not  come  by 
miracle,  but  just  in  the  same  fashion  as  it  has  broken 
upon  men  from  then  until  now.  He  woke  to  find  God 
no  tradition,  but  an  experience.  Amid  the  strife  with 
others  of  which  life  for  all  so  largely  consists,  Jacob 
became  aware  that  God  also  has  to  be  reckoned  with, 
and  that,  hard  as  is  the  struggle  for  bread  and  love  and 
justice  with  one's  brethren  and  fellow-men,  with  the 
Esaus  and  with  the  Labans,  a  more  inevitable  wrestle 
awaits  the  soul  when  it  is  left  alone  in  the  darkness 
with  the  Unseen.  Oh,  this  is  our  sympathy  with  those 
early  patriarchs,  not  that  they  saw  the  sea  dry  up 
before  them  or  the  bush  ablaze  with  God,  but  that 
upon  some  lonely  battle-field  of  the  heart  they  also 
endured  those  moments  of  agony,  which  imply  a  more 
real  Foe  than  we  ever  met  in  flesh  and  blood,  and 
which  leave  upon  us  marks  deeper  than  the  waste  of 
toil  or  the  rivalry  of  the  world  can  inflict.  So  the 
Father  of  the  Nation  came  to  find  God  at  Bethel,  and 
there,  adds  Hosea,  where  the  Nation  still  worship,  God 
spake  with  us  ^  in  the  person  of  our  Father. 

The  second  stage  of  the  knowledge  of  God  was  when 
the  Nation  awoke  to  His  leading,  and  through  a  prophet^ 
Moses,  were  brought  up  out  of  Egypt.  Here  again  no 
miracle  is  adduced  by  Hosea,  but  with  full  heart  he 
appeals  to  the  grace  and  the  tenderness  of  the  whole 


*  ii.  lo. 


*  See  above,  p.  302. 


Hosea.] 


THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  GOD 


329 


Story.  To  him  it  is  a  wonderful  romance.  Passing  by 
all  the  empires  of  earth,  the  Almighty  chose  for  Himself 
this  people  that  was  no  people,  this  tribe  that  were 
the  slaves  of  Egypt.  And  the  choice  was  of  love  only  : 
When  Israel  was  young  I  came  to  love  him^  and  out  oj 
Egypt  I  called  My  son.  It  was  the  adoption  of  a  little 
slave-boy,  adoption  by  the  heart ;  and  the  fatherly 
figure  continues,  /  taught  Ephratm  to  walk^  taking  him 
upon  Mine  arms.  It  is  just  the  same  charm,  seen  from 
another  point  of  view,  when  Hosea  hears  God  say  that 
He  had  found  Israel  like  grapes  in  the  wilderness^  like 
the  firstfruits  on  an  early  fig-tree  I  saw  your  fathers. 

Now  these  may  seem  very  imperfect  figures  of  the 
relation  of  God  to  this  one  people,  and  the  ideas  they 
present  may  be  felt  to  start  more  difficulties  than 
ever  their  poetry  could  soothe  to  rest :  as,  for  instance, 
why  Israel  alone  was  chosen — why  this  of  all  tribes 
was  given  such  an  opportunity  to  know  the  Most  High. 
With  these  questions  prophecy  does  not  deal,  and  for 
Israelis  sake  had  no  need  to  deal.  What  alone  Hosea 
is  concerned  with  is  the  Character  discernible  in  the 
origin  and  the  liberation  of  his  people.  He  hears  that 
Character  speak  for  itself ;  and  it  speaks  of  a  love  and 
of  a  joy,  to  find  figures  for  which  it  goes  to  childhood 
and  to  spring — to  the  love  a  man  feels  for  a  child,  to  the 
joy  a  man  feels  at  the  sight  of  the  firstfruits  of  the  year. 
As  the  human  heart  feels  in  those  two  great  dawns, 
when  nothing  is  yet  impossible,  but  all  is  full  of  hope 
and  promise,  so  humanly,  so  tenderly,  so  joyfully  had 
God  felt  towards  His  people.  Never  again  say  that 
the  gods  of  Greece  were  painted  more  living  or  more 
fair  I  The  God  of  Israel  is  Love  and  Springtime  to 
His  people.  Grace,  patience,  pure  joy  of  hope  and 
possibility — these  are  the  Divine  elements  which  this 


330 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


spiritual  man,  Hosea,  sees  in  the  early  history  of  his 
people,  and  not  the  miraculous,  about  which,  from  end 
to  end  of  his  book,  he  is  utterly  silent 

It  is  ignorance,  then,  of  such  a  Character,  so  evident 
in  these  facts  of  their  history,  with  which  Hosea  charges 
his  people — not  ignorance  of  the  facts  themselves,  not 
want  of  devotion  to  their  memory,  for  they  are  a  people 
who  crowd  the  sacred  scenes  of  the  past,  at  Bethel,  at 
Gilgal,  at  Beersheba,  but  ignorance  of  the  Character 
which  shines  through  the  facts.  Hosea  also  calls  it 
forgetfulness,  for  the  people  once  had  knowledge.^  The 
cause  of  their  losing  it  has  been  their  prosperity  in 
Canaan:  As  their  pastures  were  increased  they  grew 
satisfied;  as  they  grew  satisfied  their  heart  was  lifted  up^ 
and  therefore  they  forgat  Me} 

Equally  instructive  is  the  method  by  which  Hosea 
seeks  to  move  Israel  from  this  oblivion  and  bring  them 
to  a  true  knowledge  of  God.  He  insists  that  their 
recovery  can  only  be  the  work  of  God  Himself — the 
living  God  working  in  their  lives  to-day  as  He  did 
in  the  past  of  the  nation.  To  those  past  deeds  it  is 
useless  for  this  generation  to  go  back,  and  seek  again 
the  memory  of  which  they  have  disinherited  themselves. 
Let  them  rather  realise  that  the  same  God  still  lives. 
The  knowledge  of  Him  may  be  recovered  by  appreciating 
His  deeds  in  the  life  of  to-day.  And  these  deeds  must 
first  of  all  be  violence  and  terror,  if  only  to  rouse  them 
from  their  sensuous  sloth.  The  last  verse  we  have 
quoted,  about  Israel's  complacency  and  pride,  is  followed 
by  this  terrible  one  :  /  shall  be  ^  to  them  like  a  lion,  like  a 


>  iv.  6. 
«  xiii.  5. 

•  With  Wellhausen  read  HjnjJ  for  ^HJf}. 


Hosea,]  THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  GOD  331 

leopard  I  shall  leap  ^  upon  the  way,  I  will  meet  them  as 
a  bear  bereft  of  her  cubs,  that  I  may  tear  the  caul  oj 
their  hearty  that  I  may  devour  them  there  like  a  lion  :  the 
wild  beast  shall  rend  them?  This  means  that  into 
Israel's  insensibiUty  to  Himself  God  must  break  with 
facts,  with  wounds,  with  horrors  they  cannot  evade. 
Till  He  so  acts,  their  own  efforts,  then  shall  we  know  ij 
we  hunt  up  to  know^  and  their  assurance.  My  God^  we 
do  know  Theey^  are  very  vain.  Hosea  did  not  speak 
for  nothing.  Events  were  about  to  happen  more 
momentous  than  even  the  Exodus  and  the  Conquest 
of  the  Land.  By  734  the  Assyrians  had  depopulated 
Gilead  and  Galilee;  in  725  the  capital  itself  was  in- 
vested, and  by  721  the  whole  nation  carried  into 
captivity.    God  had  made  Himself  known. 

We  are  already  aware,  however,  that  Hosea  did  not 
count  this  as  God's  final  revelation  to  His  people. 
Doom  is  not  doom  to  him,  as  it  was  to  Amos,  but 
discipline;  and  God  withdraws  His  people  from  their 
fascinating  land  only  that  He  may  have  them  more 
closely  to  Himself.  He  will  bring  His  Bride  into 
the  wilderness  again,  the  wilderness  where  they  first 
met,  and  there,  when  her  soul  is  tender  and  her  stupid 
heart  broken.  He  will  plant  in  her  again  the  seeds  of 
His  knowledge  and  His  love.  The  passages  which 
describe  this  are  among  the  most  beautiful  of  the  book. 
They  tell  us  of  no  arbitrary  conquest  of  Israel  by 
Jehovah,  of  no  magic  and  sudden  transformation. 
They  describe  a  process  as  natural  and  gentle  as  a 
human  wooing;  they  use,  as  we  have  seen,  the  very 
terms  of  this  :  /  will  woo  her^  bring  her  into  the  wilder- 


*  Sec  above,  p.  305,  «.  4.        ■  vi.  3^ 

•  xiii.  7  ff.  *  viii.  3. 


332 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


nesSy  and  speak  home  to  her  heart,  .  .  .  And  it  shall  be 
in  that  day  that  thou  shalt  call  Me^  My  husband^  .  .  . 
and  I  will  betroth  thee  to  Me  for  ever  in  righteousness  and 
in  justice^  and  in  leal  love  and  in  mercies  and  in  faithful- 
ness; and  thou  shalt  know  Jehovah} 


i.  16,  \%  Sly  32. 


CHAPTER  XXU 


REPENTANCE 
HosEA  passim, 

IF  we  keep  in  mind  what  Hosea meant  by  knowledge 
— a  new  impression  of  facts  implying  a  change  both 
of  temper  and  of  conduct — we  shall  feel  how  natural  it 
is  to  pass  at  once  from  his  doctrine  of  knowledge  to 
his  doctrine  of  repentance.  Hosea  may  be  accurately 
styled  the  first  preacher  of  repentance  yet  so  thoroughly 
did  he  deal  with  this  subject  of  eternal  interest  to  the 
human  heart,  that  between  him  and  ourselves  almost 
no  teacher  has  increased  the  insight  with  which  it  has 
been  examined,  or  the  passion  with  which  it  ought  to 
be  enforced. 

One  thing  we  must  hold  clear  from  the  outset  To 
us  repentance  is  intelligible  only  in  the  individual. 
There  is  no  motion  of  the  heart  which  more  clearly 
derives  its  validity  from  its  personal  character.  Repent- 
ance is  the  conscience,  the  feeling,  the  resolution  of  a 
man  by  himself  and  for  himself — I  will  arise  and 
go  to  my  Father."  Yet  it  is  not  to  the  individual 
that  Hosea  directs  his  passionate  appeals.  For  him 
and  his  age  the  religious  unit  was  not  the  Israelite 
but  Israel.  God  had  called  and  covenanted  with  the 
nation  as  a  whole  ;  He  had  revealed  Himself  through 
their  historical  fortunes  and  institutions.    His  grace 

333 


334 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


was  shown  in  their  succour  and  guidance  as  a  people  ; 
His  last  judgment  was  threatened  in  their  destruction 
as  a  state.  So  similarly,  when  by  Hosea  God  calls  to 
repentance,  it  is  the  whole  nation  whom  He  addresses. 

At  the  same  time  we  must  remember  those  quali- 
fications which  we  adduced  with  regard  to  Hosea^s 
doctrine  of  the  nation's  knowledge  of  God.*  They 
affect  also  his  doctrine  of  the  national  repentance. 
Hosea's  experience  of  Israel  had  been  preceded  by  his 
experience  of  an  Israelite.  For  years  the  prophet  had 
carried  on  his  anxious  heart  a  single  human  character — 
lived  with  her,  travailed  for  her,  pardoned  and  redeemed 
her.  As  we  felt  that  this  long  cure  of  a  soul  must  have 
helped  Hosea  to  his  very  spiritual  sense  of  the  know 
ledge  of  God,  so  now  we  may  justly  assume  that  the 
same  cannot  have  been  without  effect  upon  his  very 
personal  teaching  about  repentance.  But  with  his 
experience  of  Gomer,  there  conspired  also  his  intense 
love  for  Israel.  A  warm  patriotism  necessarily  per- 
sonifies its  object.  To  the  passionate  lover  of  his 
people,  their  figure  rises  up  one  and  individual — his 
mother,  his  lover,  his  wife.  Now  no  man  ever  loved 
his  people  more  intimately  or  more  tenderly  than  Hosea 
loved  Israel.  The  people  were  not  only  dear  to  him, 
because  he  was  their  son,  but  dear  and  vivid  also  for 
their  loneliness  and  their  distinction  among  the  peoples 
of  the  earth,  and  for  their  long  experience  as  the 
intimate  of  the  God  of  grace  and  lovingkindness. 
God  had  chosen  this  Israel  as  His  Bride ;  and  the 
remembrance  of  the  unique  endowment  and  lonely 
destiny  stimulated  Hosea's  imagination  in  the  work  of 
personifying  and  individualising  his  people.    He  treats 


'  See  above,  p.  320, 


Hosea.] 


REPENTANCE 


335 


Israel  with  the  tenderness  and  particularity  with  which 
the  Shepherd,  leaving  the  ninety  and  nine  in  the  wilder- 
ness, seeks  till  He  find  it  the  one  lost  lamb.  His 
analysis  of  his  fickle  generation's  efforts  to  repent,  of 
their  motives  in  turning  to  God,  and  of  their  failures,  is 
as  inward  and  definite  as  if  it  were  a  single  heart 
he  were  dissecting.  Centuries  have  passed ;  the  indi- 
vidual has  displaced  the  nation ;  the  experience  of 
the  human  heart  has  been  infinitely  increased,  and 
prophecy  and  all  preaching  has  grown  more  and  more 
personal.  Yet  it  has  scarcely  ever  been  found  either 
necessary  to  add  to  the  terms  which  Hosea  used  for 
repentance,  or  possible  to  go  deeper  in  analysing  the 
processes  which  these  denote. 


Hosea's  most  simple  definition  of  repentance  is  that 
of  returning  unto  God,  For  turning  and  re-turning  the 
Hebrew  language  has  only  one  verb — shubh.  In  the 
Book  of  Hosea  there  are  instances  in  which  it  is  em- 
ployed in  the  former  sense  ;  ^  but,  even  apart  from  its 
use  for  repentance,  the  verb  usually  means  to  return. 
Thus  the  wandering  wife  in  the  second  chapter  says, 
/  will  return  to  my  former  husband;  ^  and  in  the  threat 
of  judgment  it  is  said,  Ephraim  will  return  to  Egypt} 
Similar  is  the  sense  in  the  phrases  His  deeds  will  I 
turn  back  upon  him  *  and  /  will  not  turn  back  to  destroy 
Ephraim}  The  usual  meaning  of  the  verb  is  therefore, 
not  merely  to  turn  or  change,  but  to  turn  right  round, 


'  vii.  1 6,  They  turn,  but  not  upwards ;  xiv.  5,  Mine  anger  is  turned 
mway, 

*  ii.  9.  *  iv.  9  :  cf.  xii.  3,  15. 

■  viii.  13 ;  ix.  3 ;  xi.  5.  •  xi.  9:  cf.  ii.  il. 


336 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


to  turn  back  and  home.*  This  is  obviously  the  force 
of  its  employment  to  express  repentance.  For  this 
purpose  Hosea  very  seldom  uses  it  alone.*  He  gener- 
ally adds  either  the  name  by  which  God  had  always 
been  known,  Jehovah,*  or  the  designation  of  Him,  as 
their  own  God} 

We  must  emphasise  this  point  if  we  would  appreciate 
the  thoroughness  of  our  prophet's  doctrine,  and  its 
harmony  with  the  preaching  of  the  New  Testament. 
To  Hosea  repentance  is  no  mere  change  in  the  direction 
of  one's  life.  It  is  a  turning  back  upon  one's  self,  a 
retracing  of  one's  footsteps,  a  confession  and  acknow- 
ledgment of  what  one  has  abandoned.  It  is  a  coming 
back  and  a  coming  home  to  God,  exactly  as  Jesus 
Himself  has  described  in  the  Parable  of  the  Prodigal. 
As  Hosea  again  and  again  affirms,  the  Return  to  God, 
like  the  New  Testament  Metanoia,  is  the  effect  of  new 
knowledge ;  but  the  new  knowledge  is  not  of  new  facts 
— it  is  of  facts  which  have  been  present  for  a  long  time 
and  which  ought  to  have  been  appreciated  before. 

Of  these  facts  Hosea  describes  three  kinds:  the 
nation's  misery,  the  unspeakable  grace  of  their  God, 
and  their  great  guilt  in  turning  from  Him.  Again  it  is 
as  in  the  case  of  the  prodigal :  his  hunger,  his  father. 


^  This  may  be  further  seen  in  the  very  common  phrase  T\X1^ 
^1?,  to  turn  again  the  captivity  of  My  people  (see  Hosea  vi.  Il)  ;  or 
in  the  use  of  in  xiv.  8,  where  it  has  the  force,  auxiliary  to  the 
other  verb  in  the  clause,  of  repeating  or  coming  back  to  do  a  thing 
But  the  text  here  needs  emendation  :  cf.  above,  p.  315.  Cf.  Amos*  use 
of  the  Hiphil  form  to  draw  back,  withdraw^  i.  3,  6,  9,  II,  13 ;  it.  1,  4,  6. 

•  Cf.  xi.  5,  they  refused  to  return, 

•  vi.  I,  Come  and  let  us  return  to  Jehovah;  vii.  10,  They  did  not 
return  to  Jehovah  ;  xiv.  2,  3,  Return,  O  Israel,  to  Jehovah. 

•  iii,  5,  They  shall  return  and  seek  Jehovah  their  God;  v.  4,  Their  deeds 
4o  not  allow  them  to  return  to  their  God, 


Rosea.] 


REPENTANCE 


337 


and  his  cry,  "  I  have  sinned  against  heaven  and  in  thy 
sight." 

We  have  already  felt  the  pathos  of  those  passages 
in  which  Hosea  describes  the  misery  and  the  decay 
of  Israel,  the  unprofitableness  and  shame  of  all  their 
restless  traffic  with  other  gods  and  alien  empires.  The 
state  is  rotten ;  *  anarchy  prevails.^  The  national 
/itality  is  lessened  :  Ephraim  hath  grey  hairs}  Power 
of  birth  and  begetting  have  gone ;  the  universal  un- 
chastity  causes  the  population  to  diminish  :  their  glory 
flieth  away  like  a  bird}  The  presents  to  Egypt,*  the 
tribute  to  Assyria,  drain  the  wealth  of  the  people  : 
strangers  devour  his  strength}  The  prodigal  Israel 
has  his  far-off  country  where  he  spends  his  substance 
among  strangers.  It  is  in  this  connection  that  we 
must  take  the  repeated  verse  :  the  pride  of  Israel  testi- 
fieth  to  his  face}  We  have  seen  ®  the  impossibility  of 
the  usual  exegesis  of  these  words,  that  by  the  Pride  of 
Israel  Hosea  means  Jehovah  ;  the  word  "  pride  "  is  pro- 
bably to  be  taken  in  the  sense  in  which  Amos  employs 
it  of  the  exuberance  and  arrogance  of  Israel's  civilisation. 
If  we  are  right,  then  Hosea  describes  a  very  subtle 
symptom  of  the  moral  awakening  whether  of  the  in- 
dividual or  of  a  community.  The  conscience  of  many 
a  man,  of  many  a  kingdom,  has  been  reached  only 
through  their  pride.  Pride  is  the  last  nerve  which 
comfort  and  habit  leave  quick  ;  and  when  summons  to 
a  man's  better  nature  fail,  it  is  still  possible  in  most 
cases  to  touch  his  pride  with  the  presentation  of  the 
facts  of  his  decadence.  This  is  probably  what  Hosea 
means.    Israel's  prestige  suffers.    The  civilisation  of 


'      12,  etc 

■  iv.  2  ff. ;  vi.  7  fif.,  etc. 

■  vii.  7. 
VOL.  I. 


•  ix.  1 1  ff. 

•  xii.  2. 

•  vii,  7. 


*  V.  5 ;  vii.  10. 

•  See  above,  p.  261. 

22 


338 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


which  they  are  proud  has  its  open  wounds.  Their 
politicians  are  the  sport  of  Egypt ;  ^  their  wealth,  the 
very  gold  of  their  Temple,  is  lifted  by  Assyria.^  The 
nerve  of  pride  was  also  touched  in  the  prodigal  :  "  How 
many  hired  servants  of  my  father  have  enough  and  to 
spare,  while  I  perish  with  hunger."  Yet,  unlike  him, 
this  prodigal  son  of  God  will  not  therefore  return. 
Though  there  are  grey  hairs  upon  him,  though  strangers 
devour  his  strength,  he  knoweth  it  not ;  of  him  it  cannot 
be  said  that  he  has  come  to  himself"  And  that  is 
why  the  prophet  threatens  the  further  discipline  of 
actual  exile  from  the  land  and  its  fruits,*  of  bitter 
bread  ^  and  poverty  •  on  an  unclean  soil.  Israel  must 
also  eat  husks  and  feed  with  swine  before  he  arises  and 
returns  to  his  God, 

But  misery  alone  never  led  either  man  or  nation 
to  repentance :  the  sorrow  of  this  world  worketh  only 
death.  Repentance  is  the  return  to  God ;  and  it  is 
the  awakening  to  the  truth  about  God,  to  the  facts 
of  His  nature  and  His  grace,  which  alone  makes 
repentance  possible.  No  man's  doctrine  of  repentance 
is  intelligible  without  his  doctrine  of  God ;  and  it 
is  because  Hosea^s  doctrine  of  God  is  so  rich,  so 
fair  and  so  tender,  that  his  doctrine  of  repentance 
is  so  full  and  gracious.  Here  we  see  the  difference 
between  him  and  Amos.  Amos  had  also  used  the 
phrase  with  frequency  ;  again  and  again  he  had  appealed 
tc  the  people  to  seek  God  and  to  return  to  God.^  But 
from  Amos  it  went  forth  only  as  a  pursuing  voice, 
a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness.  Hosea  lets  loose 
behind  it  a   heart,  plies  the   people  with  gracious 


•  vii.  1 6. 
'x.5. 

•  vii  lo. 


*  ii.  1 6,  etc. ;  ix.  2  fif.,  etc.       •  xii.  lo. 

•  ix.  4.  •  iv.  6,  8,9,  10^  II, 


Hosea.] 


REPENTANCE 


339 


thoughts  of  God,  and  brings  about  them,  not  the  voices 
only,  but  the  atmosphere,  of  love.  /  will  be  as  the  deiv 
unto  Israel^  promises  the  Most  High  ;  but  He  is  before 
His  promise.  The  chapters  of  Hosea  are  drenched 
with  the  dew  of  God's  mercy,  of  which  no  drop  falls  on 
those  of  Amos,  but  there  God  is  rather  the  roar  as 
of  a  lion,  the  flash  as  of  lightning.  Both  prophets 
bid  Israel  turn  to  God;  but  Amos  means  by  that, 
to  justice,  truth  and  purity,  while  Hosea  describes  a 
husband,  a  father,  long-suffering  and  full  of  mercy. 
"  I  bid  you  come  back,"  cries  Amos.  But  Hosea 
pleads,  "  If  only  you  were  aware  of  what  God  is,  you 
would  come  back."  "  Come  back  to  God  and  live,'^ 
cries  Amos ;  but  Hosea,  "  Come  back  to  God,  for  He 
is  Love."  Amos  calls,  "  Come  back  at  once,  for  there 
is  but  little  time  left  till  God  must  visit  you  in  judg- 
ment " ;  but  Hosea,  "  Come  back  at  once,  for  God  has 
loved  you  so  long  and  so  kindly."  Amos  cries,  "  Turn, 
for  in  front  of  you  is  destruction  " ;  but  Hosea,  "  Turn, 
for  behind  you  is  God."  And  that  is  why  all  Hosea's 
preaching  of  repentance  is  so  evangelical.  "  I  will 
arise  and  go  to  my  Father 

But  the  third  element  of  the  new  knowledge  which 
means  repentance  is  the  conscience  ot  guilt.  My 
Father^  I  have  sinned.  On  this  point  it  might  be 
averred  that  the  teaching  of  Hosea  is  less  spiritual  than 
that  of  later  prophets  in  Israel,  and  that  here  at  last 
he  comes  short  of  the  evangelical  inwardness  of  the 
New  Testament.  There  is  truth  in  the  charge;  and 
here  perhaps  we  feel  most  the  defects  of  his  standpoint, 
as  one  who  appeals,  not  to  the  individual,  but  to  the 
nation  as  a  whole.  Hosea's  treatment  of  the  sense 
of  guilt  cannot  be  so  spiritual  as  that,  say,  of  the  fifty- 
first  Psalm.    But,  at  least,  he  is  not  satisfied  to  exhaust 


340 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


it  by  the  very  thorough  exposure  which  he  gives  us 
of  the  social  sins  of  his  day,  and  of  their  terrible 
results.  He,  too,  understands  what  is  meant  by  a 
conscience  of  sin.  He  has  called  Israel's  iniquity 
harlotry,  unfaithfulness  to  God ;  and  in  a  passage  of 
equal  insight  and  beauty  of  expression  he  points  out 
that  in  the  service  of  the  Ba'alim  Jehovah's  people  can 
never  feel  anything  but  a  harlot's  shame  and  bitter 
memories  of  the  better  past. 

Rejoice  not^  O  Israel^  to  the  pitch  of  rapture  like  the 
heathen  :  for  thou  hast  played  the  harlot  from  thine  own 
God;  Uis  hire  thou  hast  loved  on  all  threshing-floors. 
Floor  and  vat  shall  not  acknowledge  them;  the  new  wine 
shall  play  them  false}  Mere  children  of  nature  may 
abandon  themselves  to  the  riotous  joy  of  harvest  and 
vintage  festivals,  for  they  have  never  known  other  gods 
than  are  suitably  worshipped  by  these  orgies.  But 
Israel  has  a  past — the  memory  of  a  holier  God,  the 
conscience  of  having  deserted  Him  for  material  gifts. 
With  such  a  conscience  she  can  never  enjoy  the 
latter;  as  Hosea  puts  it,  they  will  not  acknowledge  ox 
take  to^  her.  Here  there  is  an  instinct  of  the  profound 
truth,  that  even  in  the  fulness  of  life  conscience  is 
punishment ;  by  itself  the  sense  of  guilt  is  judgment. 

But  Hosea  does  not  attack  the  service  of  strange 
gods  only  because  it  is  unfaithfulness  to  Jehovah,  but 
also  because,  as  the  worship  of  images,  it  is  a  senseless 
stupidity  utterly  inconsistent  with  that  spiritual  dis- 
cernment of  which  repentance  so  largely  consists.  And 
with  the  worship  of  heathen  idols  Hosea  equally  con- 
demns the  worship  of  Jehovah  under  the  form  of 
images. 


*  ix.  I.    See  above,  p.  279.  *  See  above,  p.  279,  n.  4. 


Hosca.] 


REPENTANCE 


341 


Hosea  was  the  first  in  Israel  to  lead  the  attack  upon 
the  idols.  Elijah  had  assaulted  the  worship  of  a  foreign 
god,  but  neither  he  nor  EHsha  nor  Amos  condemned 
the  worship  of  Israel's  own  God  under  the  form  of  a 
calf.  Indeed  Amos,  except  in  one  doubtful  passage,^ 
never  at  all  attacks  idols  or  false  gods.  The  reason 
is  very  obvious.  Amos  and  Elijah  were  concerned 
only  with  the  proclamation  of  God  as  justice  and 
purity :  and  to  the  moral  aspects  of  religion  the 
question  of  idolatry  is  not  relevant ;  the  two  things  do 
not  come  directly  into  collision.  But  Hosea  had 
deeper  and  more  wide  views  of  God,  with  which 
idolatry  came  into  conflict  at  a  hundred  points.  We 
know  what  Hosea's  knowledge  of  God  was — how 
spiritual,  how  extensive — and  we  can  appreciate  how 
incongruous  idolatry  must  have  appeared  against  it. 
We  are  prepared  to  find  him  treating  the  images, 
whether  of  the  Ba'alim  or  of  Jehovah,  with  that  fine 
scorn  which  a  passionate  monotheism,  justly  conscious 
of  its  intellectual  superiority,  has  ever  passed  upon  the 
idolatry  even  of  civilisations  in  other  respects  higher 
than  its  own.  To  Hosea  the  idol  is  an  'eseby  a  made 
thing}  It  is  made  of  the  very  silver  and  gold  with 
which  Jehovah  Himself  had  endowed  the  people.'  It 
is  made  only  to  be  cut  off^  by  the  first  invader  I  Chiefly, 
however,  does  Hosea's  scorn  fall  upon  the  image  under 
which  Jehovah  Himself  was  worshipped.  Thy  Calf  O 
Samaria  he  contemptuously  calls  it.  From  Israel  Is 
it  alsOf  as  much  as  the  Ba'alim.  A  workman  made  ity 
and  no  god  is  it:  chips  shall  the  Calf  of  Samaria  become  I 
In  another  place  he  mimics  the  anxiety  oj  Samaria  for 

'  V.  26. 

•  y^}^  from  nyy,  which  in  Job  x.  8  is  parallel  to  T]'^}), 

•  ii.  8.  *  viii.  4.  •  viii.  5. 


34« 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


their  Calf;  his  people  mourn  for  hinty  and  his  priestlings 
writhe  for  his  glory  ^  why  ? — because  it  is  going  into  exile :  ^ 
the  gold  that  covers  him  shall  be  stripped  for  the  tribute 
to  Assyria.  And  once  more :  They  continue  to  sin ; 
they  make  them  a  smelting  of  their  silver^  idols  after  their 
own  modellings  smithes  work  all  of  it.  To  these  things 
they  speak  /  Sacrificing  men  actually  kiss  calves  !^  All 
this  is  in  the  same  vein  of  satire  which  we  find  grown 
to  such  brilliance  in  the  great  Prophet  of  the  Exile.' 
Hosea  was  the  first  in  whom  it  sparkled ;  and  it  was 
due  to  his  conception  of  the  knoivledge  of  God,  Its 
relevancy  to  his  doctrine  of  repentance  is  this,  that  so 
spiritual  an  apprehension  of  God  as  repentance  implies, 
so  complete  a  metanoia  or  change  of  mind,  is  intellec- 
tually incompatible  with  idolatry.  You  cannot  speak  of 
repentance  to  men  who  kiss  calves  and  worship  blocks 
of  wood.  Hence  he  says  :  Ephraim  is  wedded  to  idols: 
leave  him  alone} 

There  was  more  than  idolatry,  however,  in  the  way 
of  Israel's  repentance.  The  whole  of  the  national 
worship  was  an  obstacle.  Its  formalism  and  its  easy 
and  mechanical  methods  of  turning  to  God  disguised 
the  need  of  that  moral  discipline  and  change  of  heart, 
without  which  no  repentance  can  be  genuine.  Amos 
had  contrasted  the  ritualism  of  the  time  with  the  duty 
of  civic  justice  and  the  service  of  the  poor :  *  Hosea 
opposes  to  it  leal  love  and  the  knowledge  of  God.  / 
will  have  leal  love  and  not  sacrifice^  and  the  knowledge 
of  God  rather  than  burnt- offerings}  It  is  characteristic 
of  Hosea  to  class  sacrifices  with  idols.  Both  are 
senseless  and  inarticulate,  incapable  of  expressing  or 


5. 

•  xiii.  2. 


•  Isa.  xH.  ff. 

*  iv.  17. 


•  Amos  V. 

•  vi.  6. 


Hoses.] 


REPENTANCE 


343 


of  answering  the  deep  feelings  of  the  heart.  True 
repentance,  on  the  contrary,  is  rational,  articulate, 
definite.  Take  with  you  words,  says  Hosea,  and  so 
return  to  Jehovah} 

To  us  who,  after  twenty-five  more  centuries  of  talk, 
know  painfully  how  words  may  be  abused,  it  is  strange 
to  find  them  enforced  as  the  tokens  of  sincerity.  But 
let  us  consider  against  what  the  prophet  enforces  them. 
Against  the  kissing  of  calves  and  such  mummery — 
worship  of  images  that  neither  hear  nor  speak. 
Let  us  remember  the  inarticulateness  of  ritualism, 
how  it  stifles  rather  than  utters  the  feelings  of  the 
heart.  Let  us  imagine  the  dead  routine  of  the  legal 
sacrifices,  their  original  symbolism  worn  bare,  bringing 
forward  to  the  young  hearts  of  new  generations  no 
interpretation  of  their  ancient  and  distorted  details, 
reducing  those  who  perform  them  to  irrational  machines 
like  themselves.  Then  let  us  remember  how  our  own 
Reformers  had  to  grapple  with  the  same  hard  mechanism 
in  the  worship  of  their  time,  and  how  they  bade  the 
heart  of  every  worshipper  speak — speak  for  itself  to 
God  with  rational  and  sincere  words.  So  in  place  of 
the  frozen  ritualism  of  the  Church  there  broke  forth  from 
all  lands  of  the  Reformation,  as  though  it  were  birds  in 
springtime,  a  great  burst  of  hymns  and  prayers,  with 
the  clear  notes  of  the  Gospel  in  the  common  tongue. 
So  intolerable  was  the  memory  of  what  had  been,  that 
it  was  even  enacted  that  henceforth  no  sacrament 
should  be  dispensed  but  the  Word  should  be  given  to 

'  xiv.  2.  Perhaps  the  curious  expression  at  the  close  of  the  verse, 
so  wt'li  we  render  the  calves  of  our  lips^  or  (as  a  variant  reading  gives) 
ffuit  of  our  lipSf  has  the  same  intention.  Articulate  confession  (or 
vows),  these  are  the  sacrifices,  the  calves,  which  are  acceptable  to 
God. 


344 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


the  people  along  with  it.  If  we  keep  all  these  things 
in  mind,  we  shall  know  what  Hosea  means  when  he 
says  to  Israel  in  their  penitence,  Take  with  you  words. 

No  one,  however,  was  more  conscious  of  the  danger 
of  words.  Upon  the  lips  of  the  people  Hosea  has 
placed  a  confession  of  repentance,  which,  so  far  as  the 
words  go,  could  not  be  more  musical  or  pathetic.^  In 
every  Christian  language  it  has  been  paraphrased  to 
an  exquisite  confessional  hymn.  But  Hosea  describes 
it  as  rejected.  Its  words  are  too  easy ;  its  thoughts 
of  God  and  of  His  power  to  save  are  too  facile. 
Repentance,  it  is  true,  starts  from  faith  in  the  mercy 
of  God,  for  without  this  there  were  only  despair. 
Nevertheless  in  all  true  penitence  there  is  despair. 
Genuine  sorrow  for  sin  includes  a  feeling  of  the  ir- 
reparableness  of  the  past,  and  the  true  penitent  as  he 
casts  himself  upon  God  does  not  dare  to  feel  that  he 
ever  can  be  the  same  again.  /  am  no  more  worthy  to 
be  called  Thy  son :  make  me  as  one  of  Thy  hired  servants. 
Such  necessary  thoughts  as  these  Israel  does  not  mingle 
with  her  prayer.  Come  and  let  us  return  to  Jehovah^ 
for  He  hath  torn  only  that  He  may  heal^  and  smitten 
only  that  He  may  bind  up.  He  will  revive  us  again  in 
a  couple  of  days^  on  the  third  day  raise  us  up^  that  we 
may  live  before  Him,  Then  shall  we  know  if  we  hunt 
up  to  know  the  Lord,  As  soon  as  we  seek  Him  we  shall 
find  Him :  and  He  shall  come  upon  us  like  winter-rain^ 
and  like  the  spring-rain  pouring  on  the  land.  This  is 
too  facile,  too  shallow.  No  wonder  that  God  despairs 
of  such  a  people.   What  am  I  to  make  of  thee^  Ephraim 

Another  familiar  passage,  the  Parable  of  the  Heifer, 


*  vi.  1-4. 

■  For  the  reasons  for  this  interpretation  see  above,  pp.  263  fL 


Hosea.] 


REPENTANCE 


345 


describes  the  same  ambition  to  reach  spiritual  results 
without  spiritual  processes.  Ephraim  is  a  broken-in 
heifer — one  that  loveth  to  tread  out  the  corn.  But  I  will 
pass  upon  her  goodly  neck,  I  will  give  Ephraim  a  yoke. 
Judah  must  plough,  Jacob  must  harrow  for  himself} 
Cattle,  being  unmuzzled  by  law^  at  threshing  time, 
loved  this  best  of  all  their  year's  work.  Yet  to  reach 
it  they  must  first  go  through  the  harder  and  unre- 
warded trials  of  ploughing  and  harrowing.  Like  a 
heifer,  then,  which  loved  harvest  only,  Israel  would 
spring  at  the  rewards  of  penitence,  the  peaceable  fruits 
of  righteousness,  without  going  through  the  discipline 
and  chastisement  which  alone  yield  them.  Repent- 
ance is  no  mere  turning  or  even  re-turning.  It  is  a 
deep  and  an  ethical  process — the  breaking  up  of  fallow 
ground,  the  labour  and  long  expectation  of  the  sower, 
the  seeking  and  waiting  for  Jehovah  till  Himself  send 
the  rain.  Sow  to  yourselves  in  righteousness;  reap  in 
proportion  to  love  (the  love  you  have  sown)^  break  up 
your  fallow  ground:  for  it  is  time  to  seek  Jehovah,  until 
He  come  and  rain  righteousness  upon  us.^ 

A  repentance  so  thorough  as  this  cannot  but  result 
in  the  most  clear  and  steadfast  manner  of  life.  Truly 
it  is  a  returning  not  by  oneself,  but  a  returning  by  God, 
and  it  leads  to  the  keeping  of  leal  love  and  justice,  and 
waiting  upon  God  continually} 


'  «.  II.        »  Sec  above,  p.  288.         •  x.  12,        *  xii.  7. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 


THE  SIN  AGAINST  LOVE 

/ 

HosEA  i. — iii. ;  iv.  ii  fF. ;  ix.  loff. ;  xi.  8t 

THE  Love  of  God  is  a  terrible  thing — that  is  the 
last  lesson  of  the  Book  of  Hosea.    My  God  will 
cast  them  away} 

My  God — let  us  remember  the  right  which  Hosea 
had  to  use  these  words.  Of  all  prophets  he  was  the 
first  to  break  into  the  full  aspect  of  the  Divine  Mercy 
— to  learn  and  to  proclaim  that  God  is  Love.  But  he 
was  worthy  to  do  so,  by  the  patient  love  of  his  own 
heart  towards  another  who  for  years  had  outraged  all 
his  trust  and  tenderness.  He  had  loved,  believed  and 
been  betrayed ;  pardoned  and  waited  and  yearned, 
and  sorrowed  and  pardoned  again.  It  is  in  this 
long-suffering  that  his  breast  beats  upon  the  breast  of 
God  with  the  cry  My  God,  As  he  had  loved  Gomer,  so 
had  God  loved  Israel,  past  hope,  against  hate,  through 
ages  of  ingratitude  and  apostasy.  Quivering  with  his 
own  pain,  Hosea  has  exhausted  all  human  care  and 
affection  for  figures  to  express  the  Divine  tenderness, 
and  he  declares  God's  love  to  be  deeper  than  all  the 
passion  of  men,  and  broader  than  all  their  patience : 
How  can  I  give  thee  up^  Ephraim  ?  How  can  I  lei  theego^ 
Israel  ?    I  will  not  execute  the  fierceness  of  Mine  anger. 


"  X.  17. 

346 


Hosca.]  THE  SIN  AGAINST  LOVE  347 


For  I  am  God,  and  not  man.  And  yet,  like  poor  human 
affection,  this  Love  of  God,  too,  confesses  its  failure — 
My  God  shall  cast  them  away.  It  is  God's  sentence 
of  relinquishment  upon  those  who  sin  against  His 
Love,  but  the  poor  human  lips  which  deliver  it  quiver 
with  an  agony  of  their  own,  and  here,  as  more  explicitly 
in  twenty  other  passages  of  the  book,  declare  it  to  be 
equally  the  doom  of  those  who  outrage  the  love  of  their 
fellow  men  and  women. 

We  have  heard  it  said  :  The  lives  of  men  are  r\ever 
the  same  after  they  have  loved ;  if  they  are  not  better 
they  must  be  worse."  Be  afraid  of  the  love  that 
loves  you  :  it  is  either  your  heaven  or  your  hell.'* 
^'  All  the  discipline  of  men  springs  from  their  love — if 
they  take  it  not  so,  then  all  their  sorrow  must  spring 
from  the  same  source."  ^' There  is  a  depth  of  sorrow, 
which  can  only  be  known  to  a  soul  that  has  loved  the 
most  perfect  thing  and  beholds  itself  fallen."  These 
things  are  true  of  the  Love,  both  of  our  brother  and  of 
our  God.  And  the  eternal  interest  of  the  life  of  Hosea 
is  that  he  learned  how,  for  strength  and  weakness,  for 
better  for  worse,  our  human  and  our  Divine  loves  are 
inseparably  joined. 

I. 

Most  men  learn  that  love  is  inseparable  from  pain 
where  Hosea  learned  it — at  home.  There  it  is  that 
we  are  all  reminded  that  when  love  is  strongest  she 
feels  her  weakness  most.  For  the  anguish  which  love 
must  bear,  as  it  were  from  the  foundation  of  the  world, 
is  the  contradiction  at  her  heart  between  the  largeness 
of  her  wishes  and  the  littleness  of  her  power  to  realise 
them.  A  mother  feels  it,  bending  over  the  bed  of  her 
child,  when  its  body  is  racked  with  pain  or  its  breath 


348 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


spent  with  coughing.  So  great  is  the  feeling  of  her 
love  that  it  ought  to  do  something,  that  she  will  actually 
feel  herself  cruel  because  nothing  can  be  done.  Let 
the  sick-bed  become  the  beach  of  death,  and  she  must 
feel  the  helplessness  and  the  anguish  still  more  as 
the  dear  life  is  now  plucked  from  her  and  now  tossed 
back  by  the  mocking  waves,  and  then  drawn  slowly 
out  to  sea  upon  the  ebb  from  which  there  is  no 
returning. 

But  the  pain  which  disease  and  death  thus  cause 
to  love  is  nothing  to  the  agony  that  Sin  inflicts  when 
he  takes  the  game  into  his  unclean  hands.  We  know 
what  pain  love  brings,  if  our  love  be  a  fair  face  and  fresh 
body  in  which  Death  brands  his  sores  while  we  stand 
by,  as  if  with  arms  bound.  But  what  if  our  love  be 
a  childlike  heart,  and  a  frank  expression  and  honest 
eyes,  and  a  clean  and  clever  mind.  Our  powerlessness 
is  just  as  great  and  infinitely  more  tormented  when 
Sin  comes  by  and  casts  his  shadow  over  these.  Ah, 
that  is  Love's  greatest  torment  when  her  children,  who 
have  run  from  her  to  the  bosom  of  sin,  look  back  and 
their  eyes  are  changed !  That  is  the  greatest  torment 
of  Love — to  pour  herselt  without  avail  into  one  of 
those  careless  natures  which  seem  capacious  and 
receptive,  yet  never  fill  with  love,  for  there  is  a  crack 
and  a  leak  at  the  bottom  of  them.  The  fields  where 
Love  suffers  her  sorest  defeats  are  not  the  sick-bed  and 
not  death's  margin,  not  the  cold  lips  and  sealed  eyes 
kissed  without  response;  but  the  changed  eyes  of 
children,  and  the  breaking  of  the  full-orbed  face," 
and  the  darkening  look  of  growing  sons  and  daughters, 
and  the  home  the  first  time  the  unclean  laugh  breaks 
across  it.  To  watch,  though  unable  to  soothe,  a  dear 
body  racked  with  pain,  is  peace  beside  the  awful  vigil 


Hosea.] 


THE  SIN  AGAINST  LOVE 


349 


of  watching  a  soul  shrink  and  blacken  with  vice,  and 
your  love  unable  to  redeem  it. 

Such  a  clinical  study  Hosea  endured  for  years.  The 
prophet  of  God,  we  are  told,  brought  a  dead  child  to 
life  by  taking  him  in  his  arms  and  kissing  him.  Bu* 
Hosea  with  all  his  love  could  not  make  Gomer  a  true 
whole  wife  again.  Love  had  no  power  on  this  woman 
— no  power  even  at  the  merciful  call  to  make  aU 
things  new.  Hosea,  who  had  once  placed  all  hope  in 
tenderness,  had  to  admit  that  Love's  moral  power  is 
not  absolute.  Love  may  retire  defeated  from  the 
highest  issues  of  life.    Sin  may  conquer  Love. 

Yet  it  is  in  this  his  triumph  that  Sin  must  feel  the 
ultimate  revenge.  When  a  man  has  conquered  this 
weak  thing  and  beaten  her  down  beneath  his  feet,  God 
speaks  the  sentence  of  abandonment. 

There  is  enough  of  the  whipped  dog  in  all  of  us 
to  make  us  dread  penalty  when  we  come  into  conflict 
with  the  strong  things  of  Hfe.  But  it  takes  us  all  our 
days  to  learn  that  there  is  far  more  condemnation  to 
them  who  offend  the  weak  things  of  life,  and  particularly 
the  weakest  of  all,  its  love.  It  was  on  sins  against 
the  weak  that  Christ  passed  His  sternest  judgments : 
Woe  unto  htm  that  offends  one  of  these  little  ones;  it  were 
better  for  him  that  he  had  never  been  born,  God's  little 
ones  are  not  only  little  children,  but  all  things  which, 
like  little  children,  have  only  love  for  their  strength. 
They  are  pure  and  loving  men  and  women — men 
with  no  weapon  but  their  love,  women  with  no  shield 
but  their  trust.  They  are  the  innocent  affections  of 
our  own  hearts — the  memories  of  our  childhood,  the 
ideals  of  our  youth,  the  prayers  of  our  parents,  the 
faith  in  us  of  our  friends.  These  are  the  Httle  ones  of 
whom  Christ  spake,  that  he  who  sins  against  them  had 


350 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


better  never  have  been  born.  Often  may  the  dear  solici- 
tudes of  home,  a  father's  counsels,  a  mother's  prayers, 
seem  foolish  things  against  the  challenges  of  a  world, 
calling  us  to  play  the  man  and  do  as  it  does ;  often  may 
the  vows  and  enthusiasms  of  boyhood  seem  impertinent 
against  the  temptations  which  are  so  necessary  to  man- 
hood :  yet  let  us  be  true  to  the  weak,  for  if  we  betray 
them,  we  betray  our  own  souls.  We  may  sin  against 
law  and  maim  or  mutilate  ourselves,  but  to  sin  against 
love  is  to  be  cast  out  of  life  altogether.  He  who 
violates  the  purity  of  the  love  with  which  God  has 
filled  his  heart,  he  who  abuses  the  love  God  has  sent 
to  meet  him  in  his  opening  manhood,  he  who  slights 
any  of  the  affections,  whether  they  be  of  man  or 
woman,  of  young  or  of  old,  which  God  lays  upon  us 
as  the  most  powerful  redemptive  forces  of  our  life, 
next  to  that  of  His  dear  Son — he  sinneth  against  his 
own  soul,  and  it  is  of  such  that  Hosea  spake :  My  God 
will  cast  them  away. 

We  talk  of  breaking  law:  we  can  only  break  our- 
selves against  it.  But  if  we  sin  against  Love,  we  do 
destroy  her ;  we  take  from  her  the  power  to  redeem  and 
sanctify  us.  Though  in  their  youth  men  think  Love  a 
quick  and  careless  thing — a  servant  always  at  their  side, 
a  winged  messenger  easy  of  despatch — let  them  know 
that  every  time  they  send  her  on  an  evil  errand  she 
returns  with  heavier  feet  and  broken  wings.  When 
they  make  her  a  pander  they  kill  her  outright.  When 
she  is  no  more  they  waken  to  that  which  Gomer  came 
to  know,  that  love  abused  is  love  lost,  and  love  lost 
means  HelL 

II. 

This,  however,  is  only  the  margin  from  which  Hosea 


Hosea.] 


THE  SIN  AGAINST  LOVE 


351 


beholds  an  abandonment  still  deeper.  All  that  has 
been  said  of  human  love  and  the  penalty  of  outraging 
it  is  equally  true  of  the  Divine  love  and  the  sin  against 
that. 

The  love  of  God  has  the  same  weakness  which  we 
have  seen  in  the  love  of  man.  It,  too,  may  fail  to 
redeem ;  it,  too,  has  stood  defeated  on  some  of  the 
highest  moral  battle-fields  of  life.  God  Himself  has 
suffered    anguish    and    rejection    from    sinful  men. 

Herein,"  says  a  theologian,  is  the  mystery  of  this 
love,  .  .  .  that  God  can  never  by  His  Almighty  Power 
compel  that  which  is  the  very  highest  gift  in  the  life 
of  His  creatures — love  to  Himself,  but  that  He  receives 
it  as  the  free  gift  of  His  creatures,  and  that  He  is  only 
able  to  allow  men  to  give  it  to  Him  in  a  free  act  of  their 
own  will."  So  Hosea  also  has  told  us  how  God  does 
not  compel,  but  allure  or  woo^  the  sinful  back  to  Him- 
self. And  it  is  the  deepest  anguish  of  the  prophet's 
heart,  that  this  free  grace  of  God  may  fail  through  man's 
apathy  or  insincerity.  The  anguish  appears  in  those 
frequent  antitheses  in  which  his  torn  heart  reflects 
herself  in  the  style  of  his  discourse.  /  have  redeemed 
them — yet  have  they  spoken  lies  against  Me}  I  found 
Israel  like  grapes  in  the  wilderness — they  went  to  Baal- 
Peor}  When  Israel  was  a  child,  then  I  loved  him  .  .  . 
but  they  sacrificed  to  Baalim}  I  taught  Ephraim  to  walk, 
but  they  knew  not  that  I  healed  them}  How  can  I  give 
thee  upy  Ephraim  ?  how  can  I  let  thee  go,  O  Israel  ?  .  .  . 
Ephraim  compasseth  Me  with  lies,  and  the  house  of  Israel 
with  deceit} 

We  fear  to  apply  all  that  we  know  of  the  weakness 


•  vii.  13. 
■  ix.  10. 


•  xi.  I,  a. 

*  xi.  4. 


xi.  8 ;  xii.  I. 


352 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


of  human  love  to  the  love  of  God.  Yet  though  He  be 
God  and  not  man,  it  was  as  man  He  commended  His 
love  to  us.  He  came  nearest  us,  not  in  the  thunders 
of  Sinai,  but  in  Him  Who  presented  Himself  to  the 
world  with  the  caresses  of  a  little  child ;  Who  met  men 
with  no  angelic  majesty  or  heavenly  aureole,  but  whom 
when  we  saw  we  found  nothing  that  we  should  desire  ' 
Him,  His  visage  was  so  marred  more  than  any  man, 
and  His  form  than  the  sons  of  men ;  Who  came  to  His 
own  and  His  own  received  Him  not;  Who,  having 
loved  His  own  that  were  in  the  world,  loved  them  up 
to  the  end,  and  yet  at  the  end  was  by  them  deserted 
and  betrayed, — it  is  of  Him  that  Hosea  prophetically 
says  :  I  drew  them  with  cords  of  a  man  and  with  bands 
of  love. 

We  are  not  bound  to  God  by  any  unbreakable 
chain.  The  strands  which  draw  us  upwards  to  God, 
to  holiness  and  everlasting  life,  have  the  weakness  of 
those  which  bind  us  to  the  earthly  souls  we  love.  It 
is  possible  for  us  to  break  them.  We  love  Christ,  not 
because  He  has  compelled  us  by  any  magic,  irresistible 
influence  to  do  so ;  but,  as  John  in  his  great  simplicity 
says,  We  love  Him  because  He  first  loved  us. 

Now  this  is  surely  the  terror  of  God's  love — that  it 
can  be  resisted;  that  even  as  it  is  manifest  in  Jesus 
Christ  we  men  have  the  power,  not  only  to  remain, 
as  so  many  do,  outside  its  scope,  feeling  it  to  be  far-off 
and  vague,  but  having  tasted  it  to  fall  away  from  it, 
having  realised  it  to  refuse  it,  having  allowed  it  to 
begin  its  moral  purposes  in  our  lives  to  baffle  and 
nullify  these ;  to  make  the  glory  of  Heaven  absolutely 
ineffectual  in  our  own  characters ;  and  to  give  our 
Saviour  the  anguish  of  rejection. 

Give  Him  the  anguish,  yet  pass  upon  ourselves  the 


Hosea.] 


THE  SIN  AGAINST  LOVE 


353 


doom  I  For,  as  I  read  the  New  Testament,  the  one 
unpardonable  sin  is  the  sin  against  our  Blessed 
Redeemer's  Love  as  it  is  brought  home  to  the  heart 
by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Every  other  sin  is 
forgiven  to  men  but  to  crucify  afresh  Him  who  loved 
us  and  gave  Himself  for  us.  The  most  terrible  of  His 
judgments  is  the  wail  of  a  heart  wounded  because  its 
love  has  been  despised"  :  Jerusalem^  Jerusalem!  how  often 
would  I  have  gathered  thy  children  as  a  hen  gathereth  her 
chickenSf  and  ye  would  not.  Behold,  your  house  is  left 
unto  you  desolate  ! 

Men  say  they  cannot  believe  in  hell,  because  they 
cannot  conceive  how  God  may  sentence  men  to  misery 
for  the  breaking  of  laws  they  were  born  without  power 
to  keep.  And  one  would  agree  with  the  inference,  if 
God  had  done  any  such  thing.  But  for  them  which 
are  under  the  law  and  the  sentence  of  death,  Christ 
died  once  for  all,  that  He  might  redeem  them.  Yet 
this  does  not  make  a  hell  less  believable.  When  we 
see  how  Almighty  was  that  Love  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus,  lifting  our  whole  race  and  sending  them  forward 
with  a  freedom  and  a  power  of  growth  nothing  else 
in  history  has  won  for  them;  when  we  prove  again 
how  weak  it  is,  so  that  it  is  possible  for  millions  of 
characters  that  have  felt  it  to  refuse  its  eternal  in- 
fluence for  the  sake  of  some  base  and  transient 
passion  ;  nay,  when  /  myself  know  this  power  and 
this  weakness  of  Christ's  love,  so  that  one  day  being 
loyal  I  am  raised  beyond  the  reach  of  fear  and  of 
doubt,  beyond  the  desire  of  sin  and  the  habit  of  evil, 
and  the  next  day  finds  me  capable  of  putting  it  aside 
in  preference  for  some  slight  enjoyment  or  ambition — 
then  I  know  the  peril  and  the  terror  of  this  love,  that 
it  may  be  to  a  man  either  Heaven  or  Hell. 

VOL.  I.  2^ 


354 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Believe  then  in  hell,  because  you  believe  in  the 
Love  of  God — not  in  a  hell  to  which  God  condemns 
men  of  His  will  and  pleasure,  but  a  hell  into  which 
men  cast  themselves  from  the  very  face  of  His  love 
in  Jesus  Christ.  The  place  has  been  painted  as  a 
place  of  fires.  But  when  we  contemplate  that  men 
come  to  it  with  the  holiest  flames  in  their  nature 
quenched,  we  shall  justly  feel  that  it  is  rather  a  dreary 
waste  of  ash  and  cinder,  strewn  with  snow — some 
ribbed  and  frosted  Arctic  zone,  silent  in  death,  for 
there  is  no  life  there,  and  there  is  no  life  there  because 
there  is  no  Love,  and  no  Love  because  men  in  rejecting 
or  abusing  her  have  slain  their  own  power  ever  again 
to  feel  her  presence. 


MICAH 


**  But  I  am  full  of  powcv  by  the  Spirit  of  Jehovah 
To  declare  to  Jacob  his  transgressions,  and  to  Israel  his  sin. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 


THE  BOOK  OF  MICAH 

THE  Book  of  Micah  lies  sixth  of  the  Twelve  Prophets 
in  the  Hebrew  Canon,  but  in  the  order  of  the 
Septuagint  third,  following  Amos  and  Hosea.  The 
latter  arrangement  was  doubtless  directed  by  the  size 
of  the  respective  books ;  ^  in  the  case  of  Micah  it  has 
coincided  with  the  prophet's  proper  chronological 
position.  Though  his  exact  date  be  not  certain,  he 
appears  to  have  been  a  younger  contemporary  of  Hosea, 
as  Hosea  was  of  Amos. 

The  book  is  not  two-thirds  the  size  of  that  of  Amos, 
and  about  half  that  of  Hosea.  It  has  been  arranged 
in  seven  chapters,  which  follow,  more  or  less,  a  natural 
method  of  division.^  They  are  usually  grouped  in 
three  sections,  distinguishable  from  each  other  by  their 
subject-matter,  by  their  temper  and  standpoint,  and  to 
a  less  degree  by  their  literary  form.  They  are 
A.  Chaps,  i. — iii. ;  B.  Chaps,  iv.,  v. ;  C.  Chaps,  vi.,  vii. 

There  is  no  book  of  the  Bible,  as  to  the  date  of 
whose  different  parts  there  has  been  more  discussion, 


•  See  above,  pp.  6  U 

•  Note  that  the  Hebrew  and  English  divisions  do  not  coincide 
I.ctween  chaps,  iv.  and  v.  In  the  Hebrew  chap.  iv.  includes  a 
fourteenth  verse,  which  in  the  English  stands  as  the  first  verse  oi 
chap,  V,    In  this  the  English  agrees  with  the  Septuagint. 

357 


358 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


especially  within  recent  years.  The  history  of  this  is 
shortly  as  follows  : — 

Tradition  and  the  criticism  of  the  early  years  of  this  century 
accepted  the  statement  of  the  title,  that  the  book  was  composed 
in  the  reigns  of  Jotham,  Ahaz  and  Hezekiah — that  is,  between 
740  and  700  B.C.  It  was  generally  agreed  that  there  were  in  it 
only  traces  of  the  first  two  reigns,  but  that  the  whole  was  put 
together  before  the  fall  of  Samaria  in  721.*  Then  Hitzig  and 
Steiner  dated  chaps,  iii. — vi.  after  721 ;  and  Ewald  denied  that 
Micah  could  have  given  us  chaps,  vi.,  vii.,  and  placed  them  under 
King  Manasseh,  circa  690 — 640.  Next  Wellhausen*  sought  to 
prove  that  vii.  7-20  must  be  post-exilic.  Stade '  took  a  further  step, 
and,  on  the  ground  that  Micah  himself  could  not  have  blunted  or 
annulled  his  sharp  pronouncements  of  doom,  by  the  promises 
which  chaps,  iv.  and  v.  contain,  he  withdrew  these  from  the 
prophet  and  assigned  them  to  the  time  of  the  Exile.*  But  the 
sufficiency  of  this  argument  was  denied  by  Vatke.*  AI30  in 
opposition  to  Stade,  Kuenen^  refused  to  believe  that  Micah 
could  have  been  content  with  the  announcement  of  the  fall  of 
Jerusalem  as  his  last  word,  that  therefore  much  of  chaps,  iv.  and 
V.  is  probably  from  himself,  but  since  their  argument  is  obviously 
broken  and  confused,  we  must  look  in  them  for  interpolations, 
and  he  decides  that  such  are  iv.  6-8,  II-13,  and  the  working  up 
ol  V.  9-14.  The  famous  passage  in  iv.  1-4  may  have  been 
Micah's,  but  was  probably  added  by  another.  Chaps,  vi.  and  vii. 
were  written  under  Manasseh  by  some  of  the  persecuted  adherents 
of  Jehovah. 

We  may  next  notice  two  critics  who  adopt  an  extremely 


'  Caspari. 

■  In  the  fourth  edition  of  Bleek*8  Introduction, 

•  Z.AT.IV.,  Vols.  I.,  III.,  IV. 

•  See  also  Cornill,  Etnleitung^  183  f.  Stade  takes  iv.  1-4,  iv.  II — v.  3, 
V.  6-14,  as  originally  one  prophecy  (distinguished  by  certain  catch- 
words and  an  outlook  similar  to  that  of  Ezekiel  and  the  great 
Prophet  of  the  Exile),  in  which  the  two  pieces  iv.  5-10  and  v.  4,  5, 
were  afterwards  inserted  by  the  author  of  ii.  12,  13. 

•  Etnleitung  in  das  A.T^  pp.  690  flf. 

•  EinUitung 


THE  BOOK  OF  MICAH 


359 


conservative  position.  Von  Ryssel,*  as  the  result  of  a  very 
thorough  examination,  declared  that  all  the  chapters  were 
Micah's,  even  the  much  doubted  ii.  12,  13,  which  have  been 
placed  by  an  editor  of  the  book  in  the  wrong  position,  and 
chap.  vii.  7-20,  which  he  agrees  with  Ewald  can  only  date  from 
the  reign  of  Manasseh,  Micah  himself  having  lived  long  enough 
into  that  reign  to  write  them  himself.  Another  careful  analysis 
by  Elhorst*  also  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  bulk  of  the 
book  was  authentic,  but  for  his  proof  of  this  Elhorst  requires 
a  radical  rearrangement  of  the  verses,  and  that  on  grounds 
which  do  not  always  commend  themselves.  He  holds  chap, 
iv.  9-14  and  v.  8  for  post-exilic  insertions.  Driver*  contributes 
a  thorough  examination  of  the  book,  and  reaches  the  conclusions 
that  ii.  12,  13,  though  obviously  in  their  wrong  place,  need  not 
be  denied  to  Micah  ;  that  the  difficulties  of  ascribing  chaps,  iv.,  v., 
to  the  prophet  are  not  insuperable,  nor  is  it  even  necessary  to 
suppose  in  them  interpolations.  He  agrees  with  Ewald  as  to 
the  date  of  vL — vii.  6,  and,  while  holding  that  it  is  quite  possible 
for  Micah  to  have  written  them,  thinks  they  are  more  probably 
due  to  another,  though  a  confident  conclusion  is  not  to  be 
achieved.  As  to  vii.  7-20,  he  judges  Wellhausen's  inferences  to 
be  unnecessary.  A  prophet  in  Micah's  or  Manasseh's  time  may 
have  thought  destruction  nearer  than  it  actually  proved  to  be, 
andj  imagining  it  as  already  arrived,  have  put  into  the  mouth  of 
the  people  a  confession  suited  to  its  circumstance.  Wildeboer* 
goes  further  than  Driver.  He  replies  in  detail  to  the  arguments 
of  Stade  and  Cornill,  denies  that  the  reasons  for  withdrawing  so 
much  from  Micah  are  conclusive,  and  assigns  to  the  prophet  the 
whole  book,  with  the  exception  of  several  interpolations. 

We  see,  then,  that  all  critics  are  practically  agreed 
as  to  the  presence  of  interpolations  in  the  text,  as  well 
as  to  the  occurrence  of  certain  verses  of  the  prophet 


'  UfitersuchuHgen  uber  dit  Texigestalt  u.  die  Echtheit  des  Buchts 
Micha,  1887. 

'  D0  Profetie  van  Micha^  189 1,  which  I  have  not  seen*  It  It 
vummarised  in  Wildeboer's  Litteratur  des  A,T,i  1895, 

•  Introdttction^  1892. 

•  Utkratur  des  A.T,^  pp.  148  ff. 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


out  of  their  proper  order.  This  indeed  must  be  ob- 
vious to  every  careful  reader  as  he  notes  the  somewhat 
frequent  break  in  the  logical  sequence,  especially  of 
chaps,  iv.  and  v.  All  critics,  too,  admit  the  authenticity 
of  chaps.  L — iii.,  with  the  possible  exception  of  ii.  12,  13  ; 
while  a  majority  hold  that  chaps,  vi.  and  vii.,  whether 
by  Micah  or  not,  must  be  assigned  to  the  reign  of 
Manasseh.  On  the  authenticity  of  chaps,  iv.  and  v. — 
minus  interpolations — and  of  chaps,  vi.  and  vii.,  opinion 
is  divided ;  but  we  ought  not  to  overlook  the  remark- 
able fact  that  those  who  have  recently  written  the 
fullest  monographs  on  Micah  ^  incline  to  believe  in  the 
genuineness  of  the  book  as  a  whole.^  We  may  now 
enter  for  ourselves  upon  the  discussion  of  the  various 
sections,  but  before  we  do  so  let  us  note  how  much 
of  the  controversy  turns  upon  the  general  question, 
whether  after  decisively  predicting  the  overthrow  of 
Jerusalem  it  was  possible  for  Micah  to  add  prophecies 
of  her  restoration.  It  will  be  remembered  that  we 
have  had  to  discuss  this  same  point  with  regard  both 
to  Amos  and  Hosea.  In  the  case  of  the  former  we 
decided  against  the  authenticity  of  visions  of  a  blessed 
future  which  now  close  his  book;  in  the  case  of  the 
latter  we  decided  for  the  authenticity.  What  were  our 
reasons  for  this  difference  ?  They  were,  that  the  closing 
vision  of  the  Book  of  Amos  is  not  at  all  in  harmony 
with  the  exclusively  ethical  spirit  of  the  authentic 
prophecies;  while  the  closing  vision  of  the  Book  of 


>  Wildeboer  {De  Profet  Mtcha),  Von  Ryssel  and  Elhorst 

•  Che3me,  therefore,  is  not  correct  when  he  says      Introduction  " 

to  second  edition  of  Robertson  Smith's  Prophets,  p.  xxiii.)  that  it  is 
becoming  more  and  more  doubtful  whether  more  than  two  or  three 

fragments  of  the  heterogeneous  collection  of  fragments  in  chaps. 

iv. — vii.  can  have  come  from  that  prophet." 


THE  BOOK  OF  MICAH 


361 


Hosea  is  not  only  in  language  and  in  ethical  temper 
thoroughly  in  harmony  with  the  chapters  which  precede 
it,  but  in  certain  details  has  been  actually  anticipated 
by  these.  Hosea,  therefore,  furnishes  us  with  the 
case  of  a  prophet  who,  though  he  predicted  the  ruin  of 
his  impenitent  people  (and  that  ruin  was  verified  by 
events),  also  spoke  of  the  possibility  of  their  restoration 
upon  conditions  in  harmony  with  his  reasons  for  the 
inevitableness  of  their  fall.  And  we  saw,  too,  that  the 
hopeful  visions  of  the  future,  though  placed  last  in 
the  collection  of  his  prophecies,  need  not  necessarily 
have  been  spoken  last  by  the  prophet,  but  stand 
where  they  do  because  they  have  an  eternal  spiritual 
validity  for  the  remnant  of  Israel.^  What  was  poss- 
ible for  Hosea  is  surely  possible  for  Micah.  That 
promises  come  in  his  book,  and  closely  after  the 
conclusive  threats  which  he  gave  of  the  fall  of  Jeru- 
salem, does  not  imply  that  originally  he  uttered  them 
all  in  such  close  proximity.  That  indeed  would  have 
been  impossible.  But  considering  how  often  the 
political  prospect  in  Israel  changed  during  Micah's 
time,  and  how  far  the  city  was  in  his  day  from  her 
actual  destruction — more  than  a  century  distant — it 
seems  to  be  improbable  that  he  should  not  (in  what- 
ever order)  have  uttered  both  threat  and  promise.  And 
naturally,  when  his  prophecies  were  arranged  in  per- 
manent order,  the  promises  would  be  placed  after  the 
threats.* 

*  See  above,  p.  311. 

•  Wildeboer  seems  to  me  to  have  good  grounds  for  his  reply  to 
Stade's  assertion  that  the  occurrence  of  promises  after  the  threats  only 
blunts  and  nullifies  the  latter.  "  These  objections,"  says  Wildeboer, 
*'raiic  themselves  only  against  ihe  spoken,  but  not  against  the 
written  word."  See,  too,  the  admirable  remarks  he  quotes  from  De 
Gocje. 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


First  Section  :  Chaps.  I. — III. 

No  critic  doubts  the  authenticity  of  the  bulk  of  these 
chapters.  The  sole  question  at  issue  is  the  date  ai 
(possibly)  the  dates  of  them.  Only  chap.  ii.  12,  13, 
are  generally  regarded  as  out  of  place,  where  they 
now  stand. 

Chap.  i.  trembles  with  the  destruction  of  both 
Northern  Israel  and  Judah — a  destruction  either  very 
imminent  or  actually  in  the  process  of  happening.  The 
verses  which  deal  with  Samaria,  6fF.,  do  not  simply 
announce  her  inevitable  ruin.  They  throb  with  the 
sense  either  that  this  is  immediate,  or  that  it  is  going 
on,  or  that  it  has  just  been  accomplished.  The  verbs 
suit  each  of  these  alternatives  :  And  I  shall  setj  or  am 
settings  or  have  sety  Samaria  for  a  ruin  of  the  field,  and 
so  on.  We  may  assign  them  to  any  time  between 
725  B.C.,  the  beginning  of  the  siege  of  Samaria  by 
Shalmaneser,  and  a  year  or  two  after  its  destruction  by 
Sargon  in  721.  Their  intense  feeling  seems  to  preclude 
the  possibility  of  their  having  been  written  in  the  years 
to  which  some  assign  them,  705 — 700,  or  twenty  years 
after  Samaria  was  actually  overthrown. 

In  the  next  verses  the  prophet  goes  on  to  mourn  the 
fact  that  the  afiQiction  of  Samaria  reaches  even  to  the 
gate  of  Jerusalem,  and  he  especially  singles  out  as  par- 
takers in  the  danger  of  Jerusalem  a  number  of  towns, 
most  of  which  (so  far  as  we  can  discern)  lie  not  between 
Jerusalem  and  Samaria,  but  at  the  other  corner  of 
Judah,  in  the  Shephelah  or  out  upon  the  Philistine  plain.* 
This  was  the  region  which  Sennacherib  invaded  in  701, 
simultaneously  with  his  detachment  of  a  corps  to  attack 


*  See  below,  pp.  383  £ 


THE  BOOK  OF  MICAH 


363 


the  capital;  and  accordingly  we  might  be  shut  up  to 
afBrm  that  this  end  of  chap.  i.  dates  from  that  invasion, 
if  no  other  explanation  of  the  place-names  were  poss- 
ible. But  another  \z  possible.  Micah  him.self  belonged 
to  one  of  these  Shephelah  towns,  Moresheth-Gath, 
and  it  is  natural  that,  anticipating  the  invasion  of  all 
Judah,  after  the  fall  of  Samaria  (as  Isaiah^  also  did), 
he  should  single  out  for  mourning  his  own  district  of 
the  country.  This  appears  to  be  the  most  probable 
solution  of  a  very  doubtful  problem,  and  accordingly 
we  may  date  the  whole  of  chap.  i.  somewhere  between 
725  and  720  or  718.  Let  us  remember  that  in  719 
Sargon  marched  past  this  very  district  of  the  Shephelah 
in  his  campaign  against  Egypt,  whom  he  defeated  at 
Raphia.^ 

Our  conclusion  is  supported  by  chap.  ii.  Judah, 
though  Jehovah  be  planning  evil  against  her,  is  in  the 
full  course  of  her  ordinary  social  activities.  The  rich 
are  absorbing  the  lands  of  the  poor  (vv.  i.  ff.)  :  note 
the  phrase  upon  their  beds;  it  alone  signifies  a  time 
of  security.  The  enemies  of  Israel  are  internal  (8). 
The  public  peace  is  broken  by  the  lords  of  the  land 
and  men  and  women,  disposed  to  live  quietly,  are 
robbed  (8  ff.).  The  false  prophets  have  sufficient  signs 
of  the  times  in  their  favour  to  regard  Micah^s  threats  ot 
destruction  as  calumnies  (6).    And  although  he  regards 

»  X.  18. 

■  Smend  assigns  the  prophecy  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  in 
iii.  14,  along  with  Isaiah  xxviii. — xxxii.,  to  704 — 701,  and  suggests  that 
the  end  of  chap.  i.  refers  to  Sennacherib's  campaign  in  Pliilistia  in 
701  (A.  T.  Reh'gtonsgeschichte,  p.  225,  «.).  The  former  is  possible, 
but  the  latter  passage,  following  so  closely  on  i.  6,  which  implies  the 
fall  of  Samaria  tio  be  still  recent,  if  not  in  actual  course,  is  more  suit- 
ably placed  in  the  time  of  the  campaign  of  Sargon  over  pretty  much 
the  same  ground. 


3^4 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


destruction  as  inevitable,  it  is  not  to  be  to-day ;  but  in 
that  day  (4),  viz.  some  still  indefinite  date  in  the  future, 
the  blow  will  fall  and  the  nation*s  elegy  be  sung. 
On  this  chapter,  then,  there  is  no  shadow  of  a 
foreign  invader.  We  might  assign  it  to  the  years  of 
Jotham  and  Ahaz  (under  whose  reigns  the  title  of  the 
book  places  part  of  the  prophesying  of  Micah),  but 
since  there  is  no  sense  of  a  double  kingdom,  no 
distinction  between  Judah  and  Israel,  it  belongs  more 
probably  to  the  years  when  all  immediate  danger  from 
Assyria  had  passed  away,  between  Sargon^s  withdrawal 
from  Raphia  in  719  and  his  invasion  of  Ashdod  in 
710,  or  betw^een  the  latter  date  and  Sennacherib's 
accession  in  705. 

Chap.  iii.  contains  three  separate  oracles,  which 
exhibit  a  similar  state  of  affairs  :  the  abuse  of  the 
common  people  by  their  chiefs  and  rulers,  who  are 
implied  to  be  in  full  sense  of  power  and  security.  They 
have  time  to  aggravate  their  doings  (4) ;  their  doom  is 
still  future — then  at  that  time  {ib^.  The  bulk  of  the 
prophets  determine  their  oracles  by  the  amount  men 
give  them  (5),  another  sign  of  security.  Their  doom 
is  also  future  (6  f.).  In  the  third  of  the  oracles  the 
authorities  of  the  land  are  in  the  undisturbed  exercise  of 
their  judicial  offices  (9  f.),  and  the  priests  and  prophets 
of  their  oracles  (10),  though  all  these  professions  practise 
only  for  bribe  and  reward.  Jerusalem  is  still  being  built 
and  embellished  (9).  But  the  prophet,  not  because 
there  are  political  omens  pointing  to  this,  but  simply 
in  the  force  of  his  indignation  at  the  sins  of  the  upper 
classes,  prophesies  the  destruction  of  the  capital  (lo). 
It  is  possible  that  these  oracles  of  chap.  iii.  may  be 
later  than  those  of  the  previous  chapters.^ 


*  See  above,  p.  363,  n,  2* 


THE  BOOK  OF  MICAH 


365 


Second  Section  :  Chaps.  IV.,  V. 

This  section  of  the  book  opens  with  two  passages, 
verses  1-5  and  verses  6,  7,  which  there  are  serious 
objections  against  assigning  to  Micah. 

I.  The  first  of  these,  1-5,  is  the  famous  prophecy  of 
the  Mountain  of  the  Lord's  House,  which  is  repeated  in 
Isaiah  ii.  2-5.  Probably  the  Book  of  Micah  presents 
this  to  us  in  the  more  original  form.^  The  alternatives 
therefore  are  four :  Micah  was  the  author,  and  Isaiah 
borrowed  from  him;  or  both  borrowed  from  an  earlier 
source ;  *  or  the  oracle  is  authentic  in  Micah,  and  has 
been  inserted  by  a  later  editor  in  Isaiah ;  or  it  has  been 
inserted  by  later  editors  in  both  Micah  and  Isaiah. 

The  last  of  these  conclusions  is  required  by  the 
arguments  first  stated  by  Stade  and  Hackmann,  and 
then  elaborated,  in  a  very  strong  piece  of  reasoning,  by 
Cheyne.  Hackmann,  after  marking  the  want  of  con- 
nection with  the  previous  chapter,  alleges  the  keynotes 
of  the  passage  to  be  three  :  that  it  is  not  the  arbitra- 
tion of  Jehovah,'  but  His  sovereignty  over  foreign 
nations,  and  their  adoption  of  His  law,  which  the 
passage  predicts  ;  that  it  is  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem 
whose  future  supremacy  is  affirmed  ;  and  that  there  is 
a  strong  feeling  against  war.  These,  Cheyne  contends, 
ire  the  doctrines  of  a  much  later  age  than  that  of 
Micah ;  he  holds  the  passage  to  be  the  work  of  a 
post-exilic  imitator  of  the  prophets,  which  was  first 

*  So  Hitzig  ("ohne  Zweifel**),  and  Cheyne,  Introduction  to  the  Book 
of  Isaiah  ;  Ryssel,  op.  cit.,  pp.  218  1.  Hackmann  {Die  Zukunjts- 
erwartung  des  Jesaia^  1 27-8,  n.)  prefers  the  Greek  of  Micah.  Ewald 
is  doubtful.  Duhm,  however,  incHnes  to  authorship  by  Isaiah,  and 
would  assign  the  composition  to  Isaiah's  old  age. 

•  Hitxig  ;  EwalcJ  •  As  against  Puhm. 


366 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS  ' 


intruded  into  the  Book  of  Micah  and  afterwards  bor- 
rowed from  this  by  an  editor  of  Isaiah's  prophecies. 
It  is  just  here,  however,  that  the  theory  of  these  critics 
loses  its  strength.  Agreeing  heartily  as  I  do  with  recent 
critics  that  the  genuine  writings  of  the  early  prophets 
have  received  some,  and  perhaps  considerable,  additions 
from  the  Exile  and  later  periods,  it  seems  to  me  ex- 
tremely improbable  that  the  same  post-exilic  insertion 
should  find  its  way  into  two  separate  books.  And  I 
think  that  the  undoubted  bias  towards  the  post-exilic 
period  of  all  Canon  Cheyne's  recent  criticism,  has  in 
this  case  hurried  him  past  due  consideration  of  the 
possibility  of  a  pre-exilic  date.  In  fact  the  gentle 
temper  shown  by  the  passage  towards  foreign  nations, 
the  absence  of  hatred  or  of  any  ambition  to  subject  the 
Gentiles  to  servitude  to  Israel,  contrasts  strongly  with 
the  temper  of  many  exilic  and  post-exilic  prophecies  ;  ^ 
while  the  position  which  it  demands  for  Jehovah  and 
His  religion  is  quite  consistent  with  the  fundamental 
principles  of  earlier  prophecy.  The  passage  really 
claims  no  more  than  a  suzerainty  of  Jehovah  over  the 
heathen  tribes,  with  the  result  only  that  their  war 
with  Israel  and  with  one  another  shall  cease,  not 
that  they  shall  become,  as  the  great  prophecy  of  the 
Exile  demands,  tributaries  and  servitors.  Such  a  claim 
was  no  more  than  the  natural  deduction  from  the  early 
prophets'  belief  of  Jehovah's  supremacy  in  righteous- 
ness. And  although  Amos  had  not  driven  the  principle 
so  far  as  to  promise  the  absolute  cessation  of  war,  he 
also  had  recognised  in  the  most  unmistakable  fashion 
the  responsibility  of  the  Gentiles  to  Jehovah,  and  His 
supreme  arbitrament  upon  them.*    And  Isaiah  himself, 

*  So  righUy  Duhm  on  Isa.  ii.  2-4. 

f  Axnos  i.  and  ii.    See  gbove,  pp.  IZ^ 


THE  BOOK  OF  MICAH 


367 


in  his  prophecy  on  Tyre,  promised  a  still  more 
complete  subjection  of  the  life  of  the  heathen  to  the 
service  of  Jehovah.^  Moreover  the  fifth  verse  of  the 
passage  in  Micah  (though  it  is  true  its  connection 
with  the  previous  four  is  not  apparent)  is  much  more 
in  harmony  with  pre-exilic  than  with  post-exilic 
prophecy  :  All  the  nations  shall  walk  each  in  the  name 
of  his  god^  and  we  shall  walk  in  the  name  of  Jehovah  our 
God  for  ever  and  aye.  This  is  consistent  with  more 
than  one  prophetic  utterance  before  the  Exile,*  but  it 
is  not  consistent  with  the  beliefs  of  Judaism  after  the 
Exile.  Finally,  the  great  triumph  achieved  for  Jeru- 
salem in  701  is  quite  sufficient  to  have  prompted  the 
feelings  expressed  by  this  passage  for  the  mountain  of 
the  house  of  the  Lord ;  though  if  we  are  to  bring  it 
down  to  a  date  subsequent  to  701,  we  must  rearrange 
our  views  with  regard  to  the  date  and  meaning  of  the 
second  chapter  of  Isaiah.  In  Micah  the  passage  is 
obviously  devoid  of  all  connection,  not  only  with  the 
previous  chapter,  but  with  the  subsequent  verses  of 
chap.  iv.  The  possibility  of  a  date  in  the  eighth  or 
beginning  of  the  seventh  century  is  all  that  we  can 
determine  with  regard  to  it ;  the  other  questions  must 
remain  in  obscurity. 

2.  Verses  6,  7,  may  refer  to  the  Captivity  of  Northern 
Israel,  the  prophet  adding  that  when  it  shall  be  re- 
stored the  united  kingdom  shall  be  governed  from 
Mount  Zion  ;  but  a  date  during  the  Exile  is,  of  course, 
equally  probable. 

3.  Verses  8-13  contain  a  series  of  small  pictures  of 
Jerusalem  in  siege,  from  which,  however,  she  issues 


'  Isa.  xziii.  17  f. 


•  Jcr.  xvif. 


368 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


triumphant*  It  is  impossible  to  say  whether  such  a 
siege  is  actually  in  course  while  the  prophet  writes,  or 
is  pictured  by  him  as  inevitable  in  the  near  future. 
The  words  thou  shall  go  to  Babylon  may  be,  but  are  not 
necessarily,  a  gloss. 

4.  Chap.  iv.  14 — V.  8  again  pictures  such  a  siege  of 
Jerusalem,  but  promises  a  Deliverer  out  of  Bethlehem, 
the  city  of  David.*  Sufficient  heroes  will  be  raised  up 
along  with  him  to  drive  the  Assyrians  from  the  land, 
and  what  is  left  of  Israel  after  all  these  disasters  shall 
prove  a  powerful  and  sovereign  influence  upon  the 
peoples.  These  verses  were  probably  not  all  uttered 
at  the  same  time. 

5.  Verses  9-14. — In  prospect  of  such  a  deliverance 
the  prophet  returns  to  what  chap.  i.  has  already 
described  and  Isaiah  frequently  emphasises  as  the  sin 
of  Judah — her  armaments  and  fortresses,  her  magic  and 
idolatries,  the  things  she  trusted  in  instead  of  Jehovah. 
They  will  no  more  be  necessary,  and  will  disappear. 
The  nations  that  serve  not  Jehovah  will  feel  His  wrath. 

In  all  these  oracles  there  is  nothing  inconsistent 
with  authorship  in  the  eighth  century  :  there  is  much 
that  witnesses  to  this  date.  Everything  that  they 
threaten  or  promise  is  threatened  or  promised  by 
Hosea  and  by  Isaiah,  with  the  exception  of  the  destruc- 
tion (in  ver.  12)  of  the  Maggeboth,  or  sacred  pillars, 

•  Wellhftusen  indeed  thinks  that  ver.  8  presupposes  that  Jerusalem 
s  already  devastated,  reduced  to  the  state  of  a  shepherd's  tower 
in  the  v^rilderness.  This,  however,  is  incorrect.  The  verse  implies 
only  that  the  whole  country  is  overrun  by  the  toe,  Jerusalem  alone 
standing,  with  the  flock  of  God  in  it,  like  a  fortified  fold  (cf.  Isaiah  i.). 

Roorda,  reasoning  from  the  Greek  text,  takes  House  of  Ephratha 
as  the  original  reading,  with  Bethlehem  added  later ;  and  Hitzig 
properly  reads  Ephrath,  giving  its  final  letter  to  the  next  word 
which  improves  the  grammar,  thus  :  "l^VVn  TC\^\^ 


THE  BOOK  OF  MICAH 


369 


against  which  we  find  no  sentence  going  forth  from 
Jehovah  before  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  while  Isaiah 
distinctly  promises  the  erection  of  a  Maggebah  to 
Jehovah  in  the  land  of  Egypt.^  But  waiving  for  the 
present  the  possibility  of  a  date  for  Deuteronomy,  or  for 
part  of  it,  in  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  we  must  remember 
the  destruction,  which  took  place  under  this  king,  of 
idolatrous  sanctuaries  in  Judah,  and  feel  also  that,  in 
spite  of  such  a  reform,  it  was  quite  possible  for  Isaiah 
to  introduce  a  Maggebah  into  his  poetic  vision  of  the 
worship  of  Jehovah  in  Egypt.  For  has  he  not  also 
dared  to  say  that  the  harlots  hire  of  the  Phoenician 
commerce  shall  one  day  be  consecrated  to  Jehovah  ? 

Third  Section  :  Chaps.  VI.,  VII. 

The  style  now  changes.  We  have  had  hitherto  a 
series  of  short  oracles,  as  if  delivered  orally.  These 
are  succeeded  by  a  series  of  conferences  or  arguments, 
by  several  speakers.  Ewald  accounts  for  the  change 
by  supposing  that  the  latter  date  from  a  time  of  perse- 
cution, when  the  prophet,  unable  to  speak  in  public, 
uttered  himself  in  literature.  But  chap.  L  is  alsc 
dramatic. 

I.  Chap.  vi.  1-8. — An  argument  in  which  the  prophet 
as  herald  calls  on  the  hills  to  listen  to  Jehovah's  case 
against  the  people  (i,  2).  Jehovah  Himself  appeals  to 
the  latter,  and  in  a  style  similar  to  Hosea's  cites  His 
deeds  in  their  history,  as  evidence  of  what  He  seeks 
from  them  (3-5).  The  people,  presumably  penitent,  ask 
how  they  shall  come  before  Jehovah  (6,  7).  And  the 
prophet  tells  them  what  Jehovah  has  declaitid  in  the 
matter  (8).    Opening  very  much  like   Micah's  first 


VOL.  L 


*  Isa.  xiz.  19. 


24 


370 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


oracle  (chap.  i.  i),  this  argument  contains  nothing 
strange  either  to  Micah  or  the  eighth  century.  Excep- 
tion has  been  taken  to  the  reference  in  ver.  7  to  the 
sacrifice  of  the  first-born,  which  appears  to  have 
become  more  common  from  the  gloomy  age  of  Manasseh 
onwards,  and  which,  therefore,  led  Ewald  to  date  all 
chaps,  vi.  and  vii.  from  that  king's  reign.  But  child- 
sacrifice  is  stated  simply  as  a  possibility,  and — occurring 
as  it  does  at  the  climax  of  the  sentence — as  an  extreme 
possibility.^  I  see  no  necessity,  therefore,  to  deny  the 
piece  to  Micah  or  the  reign  of  Hezekiah.  Of  those 
who  place  it  under  Manasseh,  some,  like  Driver,  still 
reserve  it  to  Micah  himself,  whom  they  suppose  to 
have  survived  Hezekiah  and  seen  the  evil  days  which 
followed. 

2.  Verses  9-16. — Most  expositors*  take  these  verses 
along  with  the  previous  eight,  as  well  as  with  the  six 
which  follow  in  chap.  vii.  But  there  is  no  connection 
between  verses  8  and  9 ;  and  9-16  are  better  taken  by 
themselves.  The  prophet  heralds,  as  before,  the  speech 
of  Jehovah  to  tribe  and  city  (9).  Addressing  Jerusalem, 
Jehovah  asks  how  He  can  forgive  such  fraud  and 
violence  as  those  by  which  her  wealth  has  been  gathered 
(10-12).  Then  addressing  the  people  (note  the  change 
from  feminine  to  masculine  in  the  second  personal  pro- 
nouns) He  tells  them  He  must  smite ;  they  shall  not 
enjoy  the  fruit  of  their  labours  (14,  15).  They  have 
sinned  the  sins  of  Omri  and  the  house  of  Ahab  (query — 
should  it  not  be  of  Ahab  and  the  house  of  Omri  ?),  so 
that  they  must  be  put  to  shame  before  the  Gentiles  ^  (16). 
In  this  section  three  or  four  words  have  been  marked 

•  So  also  Wellhausen, 

•  E.g.  Ewald  and  Driver. 

•  For  ^Dr  read  U'}^V  with  the  LXX, 


THE  BOOK  OF  MICAH 


371 


as  of  late  Hebrew.^  But  this  is  uncertain,  and  the  infer- 
ence made  from  it  precarious.  The  deeds  of  Omri  and 
Ahab's  house  have  been  understood  as  the  persecution 
of  the  adherents  of  Jehovah,  and  the  passage  has, 
therefore,  been  assigned  by  Ewald  and  others  to  the 
reign  of  the  tyrant  Manasseh.  But  such  habits  of 
j)ersecution  could  hardly  be  imputed  to  the  City  or 
People  as  a  whole ;  and  we  may  conclude  that  the 
passage  means  some  other  of  that  notorious  dynasty's 
sins.  Among  these,  as  is  well  known,  it  is  possible  to 
make  a  large  selection — the  favouring  of  idolatry,  or 
the  tyrannous  absorption  by  the  rich  of  the  land  of 
the  poor  (as  in  Naboth's  case),  a  sin  which  Micah  has 
already  marked  as  that  of  his  age.  The  whole  treat- 
ment of  the  subject,  too,  whether  under  the  head  of  the 
sin  or  its  punishment,  strongly  resembles  the  style  and 
temper  of  Amos.  It  is,  therefore,  by  no  means  imposs- 
ible for  this  passage  also  to  have  been  Micah's,  and 
we  must  accordingly  leave  the  question  of  its  date 
undecided.  Certainly  we  are  not  shut  up,  as  the 
majority  of  modern  critics  suppose,  to  a  date  under 
Manasseh  or  Amon. 

3.  Chap.  vii.  1-6. — These  verses  are  spoken  by  the 
prophet  in  his  own  name  or  that  of  the  people's.  The 
land  is  devastated  ;  the  righteous  have  disappeared  ; 
everybody  is  in  ambush  to  commit  deeds  of  violence 
and  take  his  neighbour  unawares.  There  is  no  justice  : 
the  great  ones  of  the  land  are  free  to  do  what  they 
like  ;  they  have  intrigued  with  and  bribed  the  autho- 

*  Wellhausen  states  four.  But  H^Ci^in  of  ver.  9  is  an  uncertain 
reading.  H^O"!  is  found  in  Hosea  vii.  16,  though  the  text  of  this,  it  ia 
true,  is  corrupt.  HDI  in  another  verbal  form  is  found  in  Isa.  i.  i6. 
There  only  remains  HIO^,  but  again  it  is  uncertain  wiieLher  we  should 
take  this  in  its  late  sense  of  tribe. 


372 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


rities.  Informers  have  crept  in  everywhere.  Men 
must  be  silent,  for  the  members  of  their  own  families 
are  their  foes.  Some  of  these  sins  have  already  been 
marked  by  Micah  as  those  of  his  age  (chap,  ii.),  but 
the  others  point  rather  to  a  time  of  persecution  such 
as  that  under  Manasseh.  Wellhausen  remarks  the 
similarity  to  the  state  of  aflairs  described  in  Mai.  iii.  24 
and  in  some  Psalms.    We  cannot  fix  the  date. 

4.  Verses  7-20. — This  passage  starts  from  a  totally 
different  temper  of  prophecy,  and  presumably,  therefore, 
from  very  different  circumstances.  Israel,  as  a  whole, 
speaks  in  penitence.  She  has  sinned,  and  bows  herself 
to  the  consequences,  but  in  hope.  A  day  shall  come 
when  her  exiles  shall  return  and  the  heathen  acknow- 
ledge her  God.  The  passage,  and  with  it  the  Book  of 
Micah,  concludes  by  apostrophising  Jehovah  as  the 
God  of  forgiveness  and  grace  to  His  people.  Ewald, 
and  following  him  Driver,  assign  the  passage,  with 
those  which  precede  it,  to  the  times  of  Manasseh,  in 
which  of  course  it  is  possible  that  Micah  was  still 
active,  though  Ewald  supposes  a  younger  and  anony- 
mous prophet  as  the  author.  Wellhausen  ^  goes  further, 
and,  while  recognising  that  the  situation  and  temper  of 
the  passage  resemble  those  of  Isaiah  xl.  ff.,  is  inclined 
to  bring  it  even  further  down  to  post-exilic  times, 
because  of  the  universal  character  of  the  Diaspora. 
Driver  objects  to  these  inferences,  and  maintains  that 
a  prophet  in  the  time  of  Manasseh,  thinking  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem  to  be  nearer  than  it  actually  was,  may 
easily  have  pictured  it  as  having  taken  place,  and  put 
an  ideal  confession  in  the  mouth  of  the  people.  It 
seems  to  me  that  all  these  critics  have  failed  to  appre- 
ciate a  piece  of  evidence  even  more  remarkable  than 

*  And  also  Giesebrecht,  Beitrdge,  p.  217. 


THE  BOOK  OF  MICAH 


373 


any  they  have  insisted  on  in  their  argument  for  a  late 
date.  This  is,  that  the  passage  speaks  of  a  restoration 
of  the  people  only  to  Bashan  and  Gilead,  the  pro- 
vinces overrun  by  Tiglath-Pileser  III.  in  734.  It  is 
not  possible  to  explain  such  a  limitation  either  by  the 
circumstances  of  Manasseh's  time  or  by  those  of  the 
Exile.  In  the  former  surely  Samaria  would  have  been 
included ;  in  the  latter  Zion  and  Judah  would  have 
been  emphasised  before  any  other  region.  It  would 
be  easy  for  the  defenders  of  a  post-exilic  date,  and 
especially  of  a  date  much  subsequent  to  the  Exile, 
to  account  for  a  longing  after  Bashan  and  Gilead, 
though  they  also  would  have  to  meet  the  objection 
that  Samaria  or  Ephraim  is  not  mentioned.  But  how 
natural  it  would  be  for  a  prophet  writing  soon  after 
the  captivity  of  Tiglath-Pileser  III,  to  make  this  pre- 
cise selection  I  And  although  there  remain  difficulties 
(arising  from  the  temper  and  language  of  the  passage) 
in  the  way  of  assigning  all  of  it  to  Micah  or  his  con- 
temporaries, I  feel  that  on  the  geographical  allusions 
much  can  be  said  for  the  origin  of  this  part  of  the 
passage  in  their  age,  or  even  in  an  age  still  earlier :  that 
of  the  Syrian  wars  in  the  end  of  the  ninth  century,  with 
which  there  is  nothing  inconsistent  either  in  the  spirit 
or  the  language  of  vv.  14-17.  And  I  am  sure  that  if 
the  defenders  of  a  late  date  had  found  a  selection  of 
districts  as  suitable  to  the  post-exilic  circumstances 
of  Israel  as  the  selection  of  Bashan  and  Gilead  is  to 
the  circumstances  of  the  eighth  century,  they  would, 
instead  of  ignoring  it,  have  emphasised  it  as  a  con- 
clusive confirmation  of  their  theory.  On  the  other 
hand,  ver.  1 1  can  date  only  from  the  Exile,  or  the  fol- 
lowing years,  before  Jerusalem  was  rebuilt.  Again, 
vv.  18-20  appear  to  stand  by  themselves. 


374 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


It  seems  likely,  therefore,  that  chap.  vii.  7-20  is  a 
Psalm  composed  of  little  pieces  from  various  dates, 
which,  combined,  give  us  a  picture  of  the  secular  sor- 
rows of  Israel,  and  of  the  conscience  she  ultimately  felt 
in  them,  and  conclude  by  a  doxology  to  the  everlasting 
mercies  of  her  God. 


CHAPTER  XXV 


MICAH  THE  MORASTHITE 

MiCAH  i. 

OME  time  in  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  when  the 


O  kingdom  of  Judah  was  still  inviolate,  but  shivering 
to  the  shock  of  the  fall  of  Samaria,  and  probably  while 
Sargon  the  destroyer  was  pushing  his  way  past  Judah 
to  meet  Egypt  at  Raphia,  a  Judaean  prophet  of  the 
name  of  Micah,  standing  in  sight  of  the  Assyrian  march, 
attacked  the  sins  of  his  people  and  prophesied  their 
speedy  overthrow  beneath  the  same  flood  of  war.  If 
we  be  correct  in  our  surmise,  the  exact  year  was 
720 — 719  B.C.  Amos  had  been  silent  thirty  years, 
Hosea  hardly  fifteen ;  Isaiah  was  in  the  midway  of 
his  career.  The  title  of  Micah's  book  asserts  that  he 
had  previously  prophesied  under  Jotham  and  Ahaz, 
and  though  we  have  seen  it  to  be  possible,  it  is  by  no 
means  proved,  that  certain  passages  of  the  book  date 
from  these  reigns. 

Micah  is  called  the  Morasthite.^  For  this  designation 
there  appears  to  be  no  other  meaning  than  that  of  a 
native  of  Moresheth-Gath,  a  village  mentioned  by  him- 
self It  signifies  Property  or  Territory  of  Gath,  and 
after  the  fall  of  the  latter,  which  from  this  time  no 


Micah  i. ;  Jer.  xxvi.  18. 


L  14. 


375 


376 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


more  appears  in  history,  Moresheth  may  have  been 
used  alone.  Compare  the  analogous  cases  of  Helkath 
{portion  of — )  Galilee,  Ataroth,  Chesulloth  and  lim.^ 

In  our  ignorance  of  Gath's  position,  we  should  be 
equally  at  fault  about  Moresheth,  for  the  name  has 
vanished,  were  it  not  for  one  or  two  plausible  pieces 
of  evidence.  Belonging  to  Oath,  Moresheth  must  have 
lain  near  the  Philistine  border:  the  towns  among 
which  Micah  includes  it  are  situate  in  that  region ; 
and  Jerome  declares  that  the  name — though  the  form, 
Morasthi,  in  which  he  cites  it  is  suspicious — was  in  his 
time  still  extant  in  a  small  village  to  the  east  of  Eleu- 
theropoUs  or  Beit-Jibrin.  Jerome  cites  Morasthi  as 
distinct  from  the  neighbouring  Mareshah,  which  is  also 
quoted  by  Micah  beside  Moresheth-Gath.* 

Moresheth  was,  therefore,  a  place  in  the  Shephelah, 
or  range  of  low  hills  which  lie  between  the  hill-country 
oj'  Judah  and  the  Philistine  plain.  It  is  the  opposite 
exposure  from  the  wilderness  of  Tekoa,^  some  seven- 
teen miles  away  across  the  watershed.  As  the  home 
of  Amos  is  bare  and  desert,  so  the  home  of  Micah 
is   fair  and  fertile.     The  irregular   chalk   hills  are 

*  Ataroth  (Numb,  xxxii.  3)  is  Atroth-Shophan  {ib.  35) ;  Chesulloth 
(Josh.  xix.  18)  is  Chisloth-Tabor  {ib.  12) ;  lim  (Numb  xxxiii.  45)  is 
lye-Abarim  {ib.  44). 

'  "Michaeam  de  Morasthi  qui  usque  hodie  juxta  Eleutheropolim, 
baud  grandis  est  viculus." — ^Jerome,  Preface  to  Micha,  "Morasthi,  unde 
fuit  Micheas  propheta,  est  autem  vicus  contra  orientem  Eleuthero- 
poleos.** — OnomasticoHf  which  also  gives  "  Maresa,  in  tribu  Juda ; 
cuius  nunc  tantummodo  sunt  ruinae  in  secundo  lapide  Eleuthero- 
poleos,"  See,  too,  the  Epitaphium  S.  Paulce:  "Videam  Morasthim 
sepulchrum  quondam  Michaeae,  nunc  ecclesiam,  et  ex  latere  dere- 
linquam  Choraeos,  et  Gitthaeos  et  Maresam."  The  occurrence  of  a 
place  bearing  the  name  Property-of-Gath  so  close  to  Beit-Jibrin 
certainly  strengthens  the  claims  of  the  latter  to  be  Gath.  See 
Htsi,  Geo£,t  p.  196.  •  See  above,  pp.  74  flf. 


Micah  i.] 


MICAH  THE  MORASTHITE 


377 


separated  by  broad  glens,  in  which  the  soil  is  alluvial 
and  red,  with  room  for  cornfields  on  either  side  of 
the  perennial  or  almost  perennial  streams.  The  olive 
groves  on  the  braes  are  finer  than  either  those  of 
the  plain  below  or  of  the  Judaean  tableland  above. 
There  is  herbage  for  cattle.  Bees  murmur  every- 
where, larks  are  singing,  and  although  to-day  you 
may  wander  in  the  maze  of  hills  for  hours  without 
meeting  a  man  or  seeing  a  house,  you  are  never  out 
of  sight  of  the  traces  of  ancient  habitation,  and  seldom 
beyond  sound  of  the  human  voice — shepherds  and 
ploughmen  calling  to  their  flocks  and  to  each  other 
across  the  glens.  There  are  none  of  the  conditions  or 
of  the  occasions  of  a  large  town.  But,  like  the  south 
of  England,  the  country  is  one  of  villages  and  home- 
steads, breeding  good  yeomen — men  satisfied  and  in 
love  with  their  soil,  yet  borderers  with  a  far  outlook 
and  a  keen  vigilance  and  sensibility.  The  Shephelah 
is  sufficiently  detached  from  the  capital  and  body  of  the 
land  to  beget  in  her  sons  an  independence  of  mind  and 
feeling,  but  so  much  upon  the  edge  of  the  open  world 
as  to  endue  them  at  the  same  time  with  that  sense 
of  the  responsibilities  of  warfare,  which  the  national 
statesmen,  aloof  and  at  ease  in  Zion,  could  not  possibly 
have  shared. 

Upon  one  of  the  westmost  terraces  of  this  Shephelah, 
nearly  a  thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  lay  Moresheth 
itself.  There  is  a  great  view  across  the  undulating 
plain  with  its  towns  and  fortresses,  Lachish,  Eglon, 
Shaphir  and  others,  beyond  which  runs  the  coast  road, 
the  famous  war-path  between  Asia  and  Africa.  Ashdod 
and  Gaza  are  hardly  discernible  against  the  glitter  of 
the  sea,  twenty-two  miles  away.  Behind  roll  the  round 
bush-covered  hills  of  the  Shephelah,  with  David's  hold 


378 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


at  Adullam/  the  field  where  he  fought  Goliath,  and 
many  another  scene  of  border  warfare;  while  over 
them  rises  the  high  wall  of  the  Judaean  plateau, 
with  the  defiles  breaking  through  it  to  Hebron  and 
Bethlehem. 

The  valley-mouth  near  which  Moresheth  stands  has 
always  formed  the  south-western  gateway  of  Judaea, 
the  Philistine  or  Egyptian  gate,  as  it  might  be  called, 
with  its  outpost  at  Lachish,  twelve  miles  across  the 
plain.  Roads  converge  upon  this  valley-mouth  from 
all  points  of  the  compass.  Beit-Jibrin,  which  lies  in  it, 
is  midway  between  Jerusalem  and  Gaza,  about  twenty- 
five  miles  from  either,  nineteen  miles  from  Bethlehem 
and  thirteen  from  Hebron.  Visit  the  place  at  any 
point  of  the  long  history  of  Palestine,  and  you  find  it 
either  full  of  passengers  or  a  centre  of  campaign. 
Asa  defeated  the  Ethiopians  here.  The  Maccabees 
and  John  Hyrcanus  contested  Mareshah,  two  miles 
off",  with  the  Idumeans.  Gabinius  fortified  Mareshah. 
Vespasian  and  Saladin  both  deemed  the  occupation  of 
the  valley  necessary  before  they  marched  upon  Jeru- 
salem. Septimius  Severus  made  Beit-Jibrin  the  capital 
of  the  Shephelah,  and  laid  out  military  roads,  whose 
pavements  still  radiate  from  it  in  all  directions.  The 
Onomasticon  measures  distances  in  the  Shephelah  from 
Beit-Jibrin.  Most  of  the  early  pilgrims  from  Jerusalem 
by  Gaza  to  Sinai  or  Egypt  passed  through  it,  and  it  was 
a  centre  of  Crusading  operations  whether  against  Egypt 
during  the  Latin  kingdom  or  against  Jerusalem  during 
the  Third  Crusade.  Not  different  was  the  place  in  the 
time  of  Micah.    Micah  must  have  seen  pass  by  his 


*  For  the  situation  of  Adullam  in  the  Shephelah  see  Ui&U  Giog,y 
P  229. 


Micah  I]  MICAH  THE  MORASTHITE 


379 


door  the  frequent  embassies  which  Isaiah  tells  us  went 
down  to  Egypt  from  Hezekiah's  court,  and  seen  return 
those  Egyptian  subsidies  in  which  a  foolish  people  put 
their  trust  instead  of  in  their  God. 

In  touch,  then,  with  the  capital,  feeling  every  throb 
of  its  folly  and  its  panic,  but  standing  on  that  border 
which  must,  as  he  believed,  bear  the  brunt  of  the  in- 
vasion that  its  crimes  were  attracting,  Micah  lifted 
up  his  voice.  They  were  days  of  great  excitement. 
The  words  of  Amos  and  Hosea  had  been  fulfilled  upon 
Northern  Israel.  Should  Judah  escape,  whose  in- 
justice and  impurity  were  as  flagrant  as  her  sister's? 
It  were  vain  to  think  so.  The  Assyrians  had  come  up 
to  her  northern  border.  Isaiah  was  expecting  their 
assault  upon  Mount  Zion.^  The  Lord's  Controversy 
was  not  closed.  Micah  will  summon  the  whole  earth 
to  hear  the  old  indictment  and  the  still  unexhausted 
sentence. 

The  prophet  speaks : — 

Hear  ye,  peoples  *  all; 

Hearken^  O  Earthy  and  her fulness  t 


'  Isa.  X.  28flf.  This  makes  it  quite  conceivable  that  Micah  i.  9, 
it  hath  struck  right  up  to  the  gate  of  Jerusalem,  was  composed 
immediately  after  the  fall  of  Samaria,  and  not,  as  Smend  imagines, 
during  the  campaign  of  Sennacherib.  Against  the  latter  date  there 
is  the  objection  that  by  then  the  fall  of  Samaria,  which  Micah  i.  6 
describes  as  present,  was  already  nearly  twenty  years  past. 

'  The  address  is  either  to  the  tribes,  in  which  case  we  must 
substitute  land  for  earth  in  the  next  line ;  or  much  more  probably  it 
is  to  the  Gentile  nations,  but  in  this  case  we  cannot  translate  (as  all 
do)  in  the  third  line  that  the  Lord  will  be  a  witness  against  them, 
for  the  charge  is  only  against  Israel.  They  are  summoned  in  the 
same  sense  as  Amos  summons  a  few  of  the  nations  in  chap.  iii.  9  ff. 
— The  opening  words  of  Micah  are  original  to  this  passage,  and 
interpolated  in  the  exordium  of  the  other  Micah,  i  Kings  xxii.  a8. 


/ 

38o  THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


That  Jehovah  may  be  among  you  to  testify^ 

The  Lord  from  His  holy  temple  ! 

For  J  lo  I  Jehovah  goeth  forth  from  His  place  ; 

He  descendeth  and  marcheth  on  the  heights  of  the  earth} 

Molten  are  the  mountains  beneath  Him^ 

And  the  valleys  gape  open^ 

Like  wax  in  face  of  the  fire^ 

Like  water  poured  over  a  falL 

God  speaks  : — 

For  the  transgression  of  Jacob  is  all  thts^ 
And  for  the  sins  of  the  house  of  Israel. 
What  is  the  transgression  of  Jacob?  is  H  not 
Samaria  ? 

And  what  is  the  sin  of  the  house  *  of  Judah  ?  is  it 

not  Jerusalem  ? 
Therefore  do  I  turn  Samaria  into  a  ruin  of  the  field^ 
And  into  vineyard  terraces  ; 
And  I  pour  down  her  stones  to  the  glen^ 
And  lay  bare  her  foundations} 
All  her  images  are  shattered j 
And  all  her  hires  are  being  burned  in  the  fire; 
And  all  her  idols  I  lay  desolate j 
For  from  the  hire  of  a  harlot  they  were  gathered* 
And  to  a  harlots  hire  they  return} 

*  Jehovah's  Temple  or  Place  is  not,  as  in  earlier  poems,  Sinai  or 
Seir  (cf.  Deborah's  song  and  Deut.  xxxiii.),  but  Heaven  (cf.  Isaiah 
xix.  or  Psalm  xxix.). 

*  So  LXX.  and  other  versions. 

*  Wellhausen's  objections  to  this  phrase  are  arbitrary  and  in- 
correct. A  ruin  in  the  midst  of  soil  gone  out  of  cultivation,  where 
before  there  had  been  a  city  among  vineyards,  is  a  striking  figure  of 
desolation. 

*  Which  is  precisely  how  Herod's  Samaria  lies  at  the  present  day. 

*  So  Ewald. 

*  It  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  all  the  verbs  in  the  above  ps^ssa^e 


Micah  i.] 


MICAH  THE  MORASTHITE 


381 


The  prophet  speaks  : — 

For  this  let  me  mourn^  let  me  wail^ 

Let  me  go  barefoot  and  stripped  (of  my  robe), 

Let  me  make  lamentation  like  the  jackals^ 

And  mourning  like  the  daughters  of  the  desert} 

For  her  stroke^  is  desperate; 

YeUj  it  hath  come  unto  fudah  ! 

It  hath  smitten  right  up  to  the  gate  of  my  people^ 

Up  to  Jerusalem, 

Within  the  capital  itself  Isaiah  was  also  recording 
the  extension  of  the  Assyrian  invasion  to  its  walls, 
but  in  a  different  temper.'  He  was  full  of  the  exulting 
assurance  that,  although  at  the  very  gate,  the  Assyrian 
could  not  harm  the  city  of  Jehovah,  but  must  fall  when 
he  lifted  his  impious  hand  against  it.  Micah  has  no 
such  hope  :  he  is  overwhelmed  with  the  thought  of 
Jerusalem's  danger.  Provincial  though  he  be,  and  full 
of  wrath  at  the  danger  into  which  the  politicians  of 
Jerusalem  had  dragged  the  whole  country,  he  pro- 
foundly mourns  the  peril  of  the  capital,  the  gate  of  my 
people^  as  he  fondly  calls  her.  Therefore  we  must 
not  exaggerate  the  frequently  drawn  contrast  between 
Isaiah  and  himself.*  To  Micah  also  Jerusalem  was 
dear,  and  his  subsequent  prediction  of  her  overthrow  * 
ought  to  be  read  with  the  accent  of  this  previous 


may  as  correcUy  be  given  in  the  future  tense;  in  that  case  the 
passage  will  be  dated  just  before  the  fall  of  Samaria,  in  722-1,  instead 
of  just  after. 

*  n^r^  mJ2,  that  is,  the  ostriches  :  cf.  Arab,  wa  ana,  "  white,  barren 
grottid."  The  Arabs  call  the  ostrich  "  father  of  the  desert :  abu 
Sahara." 

LXX.  •  Isa.  X.  28  ff. 

*  It  is  well  put  by  Robertson  Smith's  Prophets'^^  pp.  2898! 
^  iii.  12. 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


mourning  for  her  peril.  Nevertheless  his  heart  clings 
most  to  his  own  home,  and  while  Isaiah  pictures  the 
Assyrian  entering  Judah  from  the  north  by  Migron, 
Michmash  and  Nob,  Micah  anticipates  invasion  by  the 
opposite  gateway  of  the  land,  at  the  door  of  his  own 
village.  His  elegy  sweeps  across  the  landscape  so 
dear  to  him.  This  obscure  province  was  even  more 
than  Jerusalem  his  world,  the  world  of  his  heart. 
It  gives  us  a  living  interest  in  the  man  that  the  fate 
of  these  small  villages,  many  of  them  vanished,  should 
excite  in  him  more  passion  than  the  fortunes  of  Zion 
herself.  In  such  a  passion  we  can  incarnate  his  spirit. 
Micah  is  no  longer  a  book,  or  an  oration,  but  flesh 
and  blood  upon  a  home  and  a  countryside  of  his  own. 
We  see  him  on  his  housetop  pouring  forth  his  words 
before  the  hills  and  the  far-stretching  heathen  land. 
In  the  name  of  every  village  within  sight  he  reads 
a  symbol  of  the  curse  that  is  coming  upon  his 
country,  and  of  the  sins  that  have  earned  the  curse. 
So  some  of  the  greatest  poets  have  caught  their  music 
from  the  nameless  brooklets  of  their  boyhood's  fields ; 
and  many  a  prophet  has  learned  to  read  the  tragedy 
of  man  and  God's  verdict  upon  sin  in  his  experience 
of  village  life.  But  there  was  more  than  feeling  in 
Micah's  choice  of  his  own  country  as  the  scene  of  the 
Assyrian  invasion.  He  had  better  reasons  for  his 
fears  than  Isaiah,  who  imagined  the  approach  of  the 
Assyrian  from  the  north.  For  it  is  remarkable  how 
invaders  of  Judaea,  from  Sennacherib  to  Vespasian  and 
from  Vespasian  to  Saladin  and  Richard,  have  shunned 
the  northern  access  to  Jerusalem  and  endeavoured  to 
reach  her  by  the  very  gateway  at  which  Micah  stood 
mourning.  He  had,  too,  this  greater  motive  for  his 
fear,  that  Sargon,  as  we  have  seen,  was  actually  in 


Micahl]  MICAH  THE  MORASTHITE 


383 


.he  neighbourhood,  marching  to  the  defeat  of  Judah's 
chosen  patron,  Egypt.  Was  it  not  probable  that,  when 
the  latter  was  overthrown,  Sargon  would  turn  back 
upon  Judah  by  Lachish  and  Mareshah?  If  we  keep  this 
in  mind  we  shall  appreciate,  not  only  the  fond  anxiety, 
but  the  political  foresight  that  inspires  the  following 
passage,  which  is  to  our  Western  taste  so  strangely 
cast  in  a  series  of  plays  upon  place-names.  The  dis- 
appearance of  many  of  these  names,  and  our  ignorance 
of  the  transactions  to  which  the  verses  allude,  often 
render  both  the  text  and  the  meaning  very  uncertain. 
Micah  begins  with  the  well-known  play  upon  the  name 
of  Gath  ;  the  Acco  which  he  couples  with  it  is  either 
the  Phoenician  port  to  the  north  of  Carmel,  the  modern 
Acre,  or  some  Philistine  town,  unknown  to  us,  but 
in  any  case  the  line  forms  with  the  previous  one  an 
intelligible  couplet :  Tell  it  not  in  Tell-town ;  Weep 
not  in  Weep'town,  The  following  Beth-le- Aphrah, 
House  of  Dust^  must  be  taken  with  them,  for  in  the 
phrase  roll  thyself  there  is  a  play  upon  the  name 
Philistine.  So,  too,  Shaphir,  or  Beauty,  the  modern 
Suafir,  lay  in  the  Philistine  region.  Sa'anan  and 
Beth-esel  and  Maroth  are  unknown;  but  if  Micah,  as 
is  probable,  begins  his  list  far  away  on  the  western 
horizon  and  comes  gradually  inland,  they  also  are  to 
be  sought  for  on  the  maritime  plain.  Then  he  draws 
nearer  by  Lachish,  on  the  first  hills,  and  in  the  leading 
pass  towards  Judah,  to  Moresheth-Gath,  Achzib, 
Mareshah  and  Adullam,  which  all  lie  within  Israel's 
territory  and  about  the  prophet's  own  home.  We 
understand  the  allusion,  at  least,  to  Lachish  in  ver.  13. 
As  the  last  Judaean  outpost  towards  Egypt,  and  on  a 
main  road  thither,  Lachish  would  receive  the  Egyptian 
subsidies  of  horses  and  chariots,  in  which  the  poli- 


384 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


ticians  put  their  trust  instead  of  in  Jehovah.  Therefore 
she  was  the  beginning  of  sin  to  the  daughter  of  Zion. 
And  if  we  can  trust  the  text  of  ver.  14,  Lachish  would 
pass  on  the  Egyptian  ambassadors  to  Moresheth-Gath, 
the  next  stage  of  their  approach  to  Jerusalem.  But 
this  is  uncertain.  With  Moresheth-Gath  is  coupled 
Achzib,  a  town  at  some  distance  from  Jerome's  site  for 
the  former,  to  the  neighbourhood  of  which,  Mareshah, 
we  are  brought  back  again  in  ver.  15.  Adullam,  with 
which  the  list  closes,  lies  some  eight  or  ten  miles  to 
the  north-east  of  Mareshah. 
The  prophet  speaks  : — 

Tell  it  not  in  Gath^ 
Weep  not  in  Acco^ 

In  Beth-le-' Aphrah^  roll  thyself  in  dust 
Pass  over^  inhabitress  of  Shaphir  '^  thy  shame  un- 
covered 1 

The  inhabitress  of  Saanan  *  shall  not  march  forth  ; 
The  lamentation  of  Beth-esel  ^  taketh  from  you  its 
standing. 

The  inhabitress  of  Maroth  ^  trembleth  for  good^ 

'  LXX.  h  'A/cei/i ;  Heb.  "  weep  not  at  all." 

'  iTIDI^TJ  cannot  be  the  Ophrah,  JTIB^j  of  Benjamin.  It  may  be 
connected  with  "Igy^  a  gazelle ;  and  it  is  to  be  noted  that  S.  of 
Bcit-Jibrin  there  is  a  wady  now  called  El-Ghufr,  the  corresponding 
Arabic  word.  But,  as  stated  in  the  text  above,  the  name  ought  to  be 
one  of  a  Philistine  town. 

*  Beauty  town.  This  is  usually  taken  to  be  the  modem  Suafir  on 
the  Philistine  plain,  miles  S.E.  of  Ashdod,  a  site  not  unsuitable 
for  identification  with  the  Sa0etp  of  the  Onom.f  "  between  Eleuthero- 
polls  and  Ascalon,"  except  that  Sa^etp  is  also  described  as  "  in  the  hill 
country."  Gu^rin  found  the  name  Safar  a  very  little  N,  of  Beit- 
Jibrin  (Jude'e,  II.  317). 

*  March-town :  perhaps  the  same  as  §enan  (JJV)  of  Josh.  xv.  37  ; 
given  along  with  Migdal-Gad  and  Hadashah ;  not  identified. 

*  Unknown.  *  "  Bitternesses  "  :  unknown. 


Micah  i.] 


MICAH  THE  MORASTHITE 


385 


For  evil  hath  come  down  from  Jehovah  to  the  gate 
of Jerusalem. 

Harness  the  horse  to  the  chariot^  tnhabitress  oj 

Lachish^ 

That  hast  been  the  beginning  of  sin  to  the  daughter 
of  Zion; 

Yea,  in  thee  are  found  the  transgressions  of  Israel. 
Therefore  thou  givest  .  .      to  Moresheth-Gath :  • 
The  houses  of  Achzib  *  shall  deceive  the  kings  of 
Israel. 

Again  shall  I  bring  the  Possessor  [conqueror"]  to  thee, 

inhabitress  of  Mareshah;  • 
To  Adullam  •  shall  come  the  glory  of  Israel. 
Make  thee  bald^  and  shave  thee  for  thy  darlings; 
Make  broad  thy  baldness  like  the  vulture^ 
For  they  go  into  banishment  from  thee. 

This  was  the  terrible  fate  which  the  Assyrian  kept 
before  the  peoples  with  whom  he  was  at  war.  Other 
foes  raided,  burned  and  slew  :  he  carried  off  whole 
populations  into  exile. 

Having  thus  pictured  the  doom  which  threatened 
his  people,  Micah  turns  to  declare  the  sins  for  which 
it  has  been  sent  upon  them. 


»  Tell-el-Hesy, 

•  Ambassadors  or  letters  0/ dismissal, 

•  See  above,  p.  376. 

•  Josh.  XV.  44  ;  mentioned  with  Keilah  and  Mareshah ;  perhaps  the 
present  Ain  Kezbeh,  8  miles  N.N.E.  of  Beit-Jibrin. 

•  n^lOj  but  in  Josh.  xv.  44  ^t^'i<"lD,  which  is  identical  with  spelling 
of  the  present  name  of  a  ruin  I  mile  S.  of  Beit-Jibrin.  Maprjcra  is 
placed  by  Eusebius  (finom.')  2  Roman  miles  S.  of  Eleutheropolis 
(=  Beit-Jibrin). 

•  6  miles  N.E.  of  Beit-Jibrin. 


VOL.  L 


CHAPTER  XXVI 


THE  PROPHET  OF  THE  POOR 
MiCAH  il,  iii. 

WE  have  proved  Micah's  love  for  his  countryside  in 
the  effusion  of  his  heart  upon  her  villages  with 
a  grief  for  their  danger  greater  than  his  grief  for  Jeru- 
salem. Now  in  his  treatment  of  the  sins  which  give  that 
.danger  its  fatal  significance,  he  is  inspired  by  the  same 
partiality  for  the  fields  and  the  folk  about  him.  While 
Isaiah  chiefly  satirises  the  fashions  of  the  town  and 
the  intrigues  of  the  court,  Micah  scourges  the  avarice 
of  the  landowner  and  the  injustice  which  oppresses  the 
peasant.  He  could  not,  of  course,  help  sharing  Isaiah's 
indignation  for  the  fatal  politics  of  the  capital,  any 
more  than  Isaiah  could  help  sharing  his  sense  of  the 
economic  dangers  of  the  provinces ;  ^  but  it  is  the  latter 
with  which  Micah  is  most  familiar  and  on  which  he 
spends  his  wrath.  These  so  engross  him,  indeed,  that 
he  says  almost  nothing  about  the  idolatry,  or  the 
luxury,  or  the  hideous  vice,  which,  according  to  Amos 
and  Hosea,  were  now  corrupting  the  nation. 

Social  wrongs  are  always  felt  most  acutely,  not  in 
the  town,  but  in  the  country.  It  was  so  in  the  days 
of  Rome,  whose  earliest  social  revolts  were  agrarian.* 

»  Isa.  V.  8. 

•  Mr.  Congreve,  in  his  Essay  on  Slavery  appended  to  his  edition 
386 


Micah  ii.,  iii.]    THE  PROPHET  OF  THE  POOR  387 


It  was  SO  in  the  Middle  Ages  :  the  fourteenth  century 
saw  both  the  Jacquerie  in  France  and  the  Peasants' 
Rising  in  England ;  Langland,  who  was  equally  familiar 
with  town  and  country,  expends  nearly  all  his  sympathy 
upon  the  poverty  of  the  latter,  "  the  poure  folk  in  cotes." 
It  was  so  after  the  Reformation,  under  the  new  spirit 
of  which  the  first  social  revolt  was  the  Peasants*  War 
in  Germany.  It  was  so  at  the  French  Revolution, 
which  began  with  the  march  of  the  starving  peasants 
into  Paris.  And  it  is  so  still,  for  our  new  era  of  social 
legislation  has  been  forced  open,  not  by  the  poor  of 
London  and  the  large  cities,  but  by  the  peasantry  of 
Ireland  and  the  crofters  of  the  Scottish  Highlands. 
Political  discontent  and  religious  heresy  take  their 
start  among  industrial  and  manufacturing  centres,  but 
the  first  springs  of  the  social  revolt  are  nearly  always 
found  among  rural  populations. 

Why  the  country  should  begin  to  feel  the  acuteness 
of  social  wrong  before  the  town  is  sufficiently  obvious. 
In  the  town  there  are  mitigations,  and  there  are  escapes. 
If  the  conditions  of  one  trade  become  oppressive,  it  is 
easier  to  pass  to  another.  The  workers  are  better 
educated  and  better  organised ;  there  is  a  middle  class, 
and  the  tyrant  dare  not  bring  matters  to  so  high  a 
crisis.  The  might  of  the  wealthy,  too,  is  divided  ;  the 
poor  man's  employer  is  seldom  at  the  same  time  his 
landlord.  But  in  the  country  power  easily  gathers  into 
the  hands  of  the  few.  The  labourer's  opportunities  and 
means  of  work,  his  home,  his  very  standing-ground,  are 
often  all  of  them  the  property  of  one  man.    In  the 


of  Aristotle's  Politics^  p.  496,  points  out  that  all  the  servile  wars  from 
which  Rome  suffered  arose,  not  in  the  capital,  but  in  the  provinces, 
notably  in  Sicily. 


388 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


country  the  rich  have  a  real  power  of  life  and  death, 
and  are  less  hampered  by  competition  with  each  other 
and  by  the  force  of  public  opinion.  One  man  cannot 
hold  a  city  in  fee,  but  one  man  can  affect  for  evil  or  for 
good  almost  as  large  a  population  as  a  city's,  when 
it  is  scattered  across  a  countryside. 

This  is  precisely  the  state  of  wrong  which  Micah 
attacks.  The  social  changes  of  the  eighth  century  in 
Israel  were  peculiarly  favourable  to  its  growth.^  The 
enormous  increase  of  money  which  had  been  produced 
by  the  trade  of  Uzziah's  reign  threatened  to  over- 
whelm the  simple  economy  under  which  every  family 
had  its  croft.  As  in  many  another  land  and  period, 
the  social  problem  was  the  descent  of  wealthy  men, 
land-hungry,  upon  the  rural  districts.  They  made  the 
poor  their  debtors,  and  bought  out  the  peasant  pro- 
prietors. They  absorbed  into  their  power  numbers  of 
homes,  and  had  at  their  individual  disposal  the  lives 
and  the  happiness  of  thousands  of  their  fellow-country- 
men. Isaiah  had  cried,  Woe  upon  them  that  join  house 
to  house,  that  lay  field  to  field,  till  there  be  no  room  for  the 
common  people,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  rural  districts 
grow  fewer  and  fewer.^  Micah  pictures  the  recklessness 
of  those  plutocrats — the  fatal  ease  with  which  their 
wealth  enabled  them  to  dispossess  the  yeomen  of 
Judah. 

The  prophet  speaks  : — 

Woe  to  them  that  plan  mischief , 

And  on  their  beds  work  out  evil  I 

As  soon  as  morning  breaks  they  put  ii  into  execution, 

For — //  lies  to  the  power  of  their  hands  I 


*  Sec  above,  pp,  32  fif. 


*  Isa.  V.  8. 


Micah  ii.,  iii.]    THE  PROPHET  OF  THE  POOR 


3^9 


They  covet  fields  and — seize  them^ 
Houses  and — lift  them  up. 
So  they  crush  a  good  man  and  his  home^ 
A  man  and  his  heritage. 

This  is  the  evil — the  ease  with  which  wrong  is  done 
in  the  country  1  //  lies  to  the  power  of  their  hands : 
they  covet  and  seize.  And  what  is  it  that  they  get  so 
easily — not  merely  field  and  house,  so  much  land  and 
stone  and  lime :  it  is  human  life,  with  all  that  makes 
up  personal  independence,  and  the  security  of  home 
and  of  the  family.  That  these  should  be  at  the  mercy 
of  the  passion  or  the  caprice  of  one  man — this  is  what 
stirs  the  prophet's  indignation.  We  shall  presently 
see  how  the  tyranny  of  wealth  was  aided  by  the 
bribed  and  unjust  judges  of  the  country;  and  how, 
growing  reckless,  the  rich  betook  themselves,  as  the 
lords  of  the  feudal  system  in  Europe  continually  did, 
to  the  basest  of  assaults  upon  the  persons  of  peaceful 
men  and  women.  But  meantime  Micah  feels  that  b}^ 
themselves  the  economic  wrongs  explain  and  justify  the 
doom  impending  on  the  nation.  When  this  doom  falls, 
by  the  Divine  irony  of  God  it  shall  take  the  form  of  a 
conquest  of  the  land  by  the  heathen,  and  the  disposal 
of  these  great  estates  to  the  foreigner. 

The  prophet  speaks  : — 

Therefore  thus  saith  Jehovah  : 

Beholdy  I  am  planning  evil  against  this  race^ 

From  which  ye  shall  not  withdraw  your  necks^ 

Nor  walk  upright ; 

For  an  evil  time  it  is  /* 


'  Cf.  Amos  y, 


390 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


In  thai  day  shall  they  raise  a  taunt-song  against 
you, 

And  wail  out  the  wailing  (^'It  is  done        and  sajv, 

"  We  be  utterly  undone : 

My  people^ s  estate  is  measured  off  t  ■ 

How  they  take  it  away  from  me  /* 

To  the  rebel  our  fields  are  allotted!^ 

So  thou  shall  have  none  to  cast  the  line  by  lot 

In  the  congregation  of  Jehovah. 

No  restoration  at  time  of  Jubilee  for  lands  taken  away 
in  this  fashion !  There  will  be  no  congregation  of 
Jehovah  left  1 

At  this  point  the  prophet's  pessimist  discourse,  that 
must  have  galled  the  rich,  is  interrupted  by  their 
clamour  to  him  to  stop. 

The  rich  speak  : — 

Prate  not,  they  prate^  let  none  prate  of  such  things  1 

Revilings  will  never  cease  ! 

O  thou  that  speakest  thus  to  the  house  of  Jacob^ 

Is  the  spirit  of  Jehovah  cut  short  ? 

Or  are  such  His  doings  ? 

Shall  not  His  words  mean  well  with  him  that  walketh 
uprightly  ? 

So  the  rich,  in  their  immoral  confidence  that  Jehovah 
was  neither  weakened  nor  could  permit  such  a  disaster 


*  **  Fuit."  But  whether  this  is  a  gloss,  as  of  the  name  of  the  dirge  or  of 
the  tune,  or  a  part  of  the  text,  is  uncertain.   Query  :  HHi^  nnJI. 

*  So  LXX.,  and  adds :     with  the  measuring  rope." 

*  Or  (after  the  LXX.)  there  is  none  to  give  it  back  to  me, 

*  Uncertain.  "  Is  the  house  of  Jacob  .  .  .  ?  "  (Wellhausen).  "What 
A  saying,  O  house  of  Jacob  ?  "  (Ewald  and  Guthe).  In  the  latter 
case  the  interruption  of  the  rich  ceases  with  the  previous  line,  and 
this  one  is  the  beginning  of  the  prophet's  answer  to  them. 


Micahii.,iii.]    THE  PROPHET  OF  THE  POOR 


391 


to  fall  on  His  own  people,  tell  the  prophet  that  his 
sentence  of  doom  on  the  nation,  and  especially  on  them- 
selves, is  absurd,  impossible.  They  cry  the  eternal  cry 
of  Respectability :  "  God  can  mean  no  harm  to  the 
like  of  us  1  His  words  are  good  to  them  that  walk 
uprightly — and  we  are  conscious  of  being  such.  What 
you,  prophet,  have  charged  us  with  are  nothing  but 
natural  transactions."  The  Lord  Himself  has  His 
answer  ready.  Upright  indeed  I  They  have  been 
unprovoked  plunderers  1 
God  speaks  : — 

But  ye  are  the  foes  of  My  people ^ 

Rising  against  those  that  are  peaceful; 

The  mantle  ye  strip  from  them  that  walk  quietly  by, 

Averse  to  warl^ 

Women  of  My  people  ye  tear  from  their  happy 

homes^ 

From  their  children  ye  take  My  glory  for  ever. 
Rise  and  begone—for  this  is  no  resting-place  I 
Because  of  the  uncleanness  that  bringeth  destruction^ 
Destruction  incurable. 

Of  the  outrages  on  the  goods  of  honest  men,  and  the 

persons  ol  women  and  children,  which  are  possible  in 
a  time  01  peace,  when  the  rich  are  tyrannous  and 


*  So  we  may  conjecture  the  very  obscure  details  of  a  verse  whose 
general  meaning,  however,  is  evident.  For  read  ^DnXV  The 
LXX.  takes  HD'PK'  as  peace  and  not  as  cloak^  for  which  there  seems 
to  be  no  place  beside  ^IHN  (or  nUN).  Wellhausen  with  further  altera- 
tions renders  :  "  But  ye  come  forward  as  enemies  against  My  people; 
from  good  friends  ye  rob  their  .  .  .  ,  from  peaceful  wanderers  war- 
booty." 

•  Wellhausen  reads  lor  fl^H,  "tenderly  bred  children,"  another 
0/  the  many  emendations  which  he  proposes  in  the  interests  of 
complete  parallelism,    bee  the  Preface  to  this  volume. 


392 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


abetted  by  mercenary  judges  and  prophets,  we  have 
an  illustration  analogous  to  Micah's  in  the  complaint 
of  Peace  in  Langland's  vision  of  English  society  in  the 
fourteenth  century.  The  parallel  to  our  prophet's  words 
is  very  striking :  — 

"  And  thanne  come  Pees  into  parlement  *  and  put  forth  a  billc, 
How  Wronge  ageines  his  wille  •  had  his  wyf  taken. 
'Both  my  gees  and  my  grys  *  •  his  gadelynges*  feccheth; 
I  dar  noughte  for  fere  of  hym  •  fyghte  ne  chyde. 
He  borwed  of  me  bayard  •  •  he  broughte  hym  home  nevrey 
Ne  no  ferthynge  ther-fore  •  for  naughte  I  couthe  plede. 
He  meynteneth  his  men  *  to  marther  myne  hewen,* 
Forstalleth  my  feyres*  •  and  fighteth  in  my  chepynge, 
And  breketh  up  my  bernes  dore  *  and  bereth  aweye  my  whete, 
And  taketh  me  but  a  taile  •  •  for  ten  quarters  of  otes, 
And  yet  he  bet  me  ther-to  •  and  lyth  bi  my  mayde^ 
I  nam '  noughte  hardy  for  hym  •  uneth  •  to  loke.* " 

They  pride  themselves  that  all  is  stable  and  God  is 
with  them.  How  can  such  a  state  of  affairs  be  stable  I 
They  feel  at  ease,  yet  injustice  can  never  mean  rest. 
Gk)d  has  spoken  the  final  sentence,  but  with  a  rare 
sarcasm  the  prophet  adds  his  comment  on  the  scene. 
These  rich  men  had  been  flattered  into  their  religious 
security  by  hireling  prophets,  who  had  opposed  himself. 
As  they  leave  the  presence  of  God,  having  heard  their 
sentence,  Micah  looks  after  them  and  muses  in  quiet 
prose. 

The  prophet  speaks  : — 

YeUy  if  one  whose  walk  is  wind  and  falsehood  were  to  try 
to  cozen  thee,  saying,  /  will  babble  to  thee  of  wine  and 
strong  drink y  then  he  might  be  the  prophet  of  such  a  people. 

At  this  point  in  chap.  ii.  there  have  somehow  slipped 
into  the  text  two  verses  (i2,  13),  which  all  are  agreed 


'  Little  pigs. 
•  Fellows. 


•  A  horse. 

*  Servants. 


•  Fairs,  markets. 

•  A  tally. 


*  Am  not. 

•  Scarcely, 


Micah  ii.,  iii.]    THE  PROPHET  OF  THE  POOR  393 


do  not  belong  to  it,  and  for  which  we  must  find  another 
place.*  They  speak  of  a  return  from  the  Exile,  and 
interrupt  the  connection  between  ver.  11  and  the  first 
verse  of  chap.  iii.  With  the  latter  Micah  begins  a  series 
of  three  oracles,  which  give  the  substance  of  his  own 
prophesying  in  contrast  to  that  of  the  false  prophets 
whom  he  has  just  been  satirising.  He  has  told  us 
what  they  say,  and  he  now  begins  the  first  of  his  own 
oracles  with  the  words.  But  I  said.  It  is  an  attack  upon 
the  authorities  of  the  nation,  whom  the  false  prophets 
flatter.  Micah  speaks  very  plainly  to  them.  Their 
business  is  to  know  justice,  and  yet  they  love  wrong. 
They  flay  the  people  with  their  exactions ;  they  cut  up 
the  people  like  meat. 

The  prophet  speaks : — But  I  satdy 
Hear  now^  O  chiefs  of  Jacob  ^ 
And  rulers  of  the  house  of  Israel: 
Is  it  not  yours  to  know  justice  ? — 
Haters  of  good  and  lovers  of  evil^ 
Tearing  their  hide  from  upon  them 

(he  points  to  the  people). 
And  their  flesh  from  the  bones  oj  them; 
And  who  devour  the  flesh  of  my  people. 
And  their  hide  they  have  stripped  from  them 
And  their  bones  have  they  cleft, 


•  /  will  gather ^  gather  thee,  O  Jacoby  in  masSf 
J  will  bring,  bring  together  the  Remnant  of  Israeli 
I  will  set  them  like  sheep  in  a  fold^ 
Like  a  flock  in  the  midst  of  the  pasture. 
They  shall  hum  with  men  I 
The  breach-breaker  hath  gone  up  before  thems 
They  have  broken  the  breach^  have  carried  the  gate,  and  are  gone 
out  by  it; 

And  their  king  hath  passed  on  before  them,  and  Jehovah  at  their 
head. 


394 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


And  served  it  up  as  if  from  a  pot^ 
Like  meat  Jrom  the  thick  of  the  caldron  I 
At  that  time  shall  they  cry  to  Jehovah^ 
And  He  will  not  answer  them  ; 
But  hide  His  face  from  them  at  that  time, 
Because  they  have  aggravated  their  deeds. 

These  words  of  Micah  are  terribly  strong,  but  there 
have  been  many  other  ages  and  civilisations  than  his 
own  of  which  they  have  been  no  more  than  true. 
"They  crop  us,"  said  a  French  peasant  of  the  lords 
of  the  great  Louis*  time,  "  as  the  sheep  crops  grass." 
"They  treat  us  Hke  their  food,"  said  another  on  the 
eve  of  the  Revolution. 

Is  there  nothing  of  the  same  with  ourselves  ?  While 
Micah  spoke  he  had  wasted  lives  and  bent  backs  before 
him.  His  speech  is  elliptic  till  you  see  his  finger 
pointing  at  them.  Pinched  peasant-faces  peer  between 
all  his  words  and  fill  the  ellipses.  And  among  the 
living  poor  to-day  are  there  not  starved  and  bitten 
faces — bodies  with  the  blood  sucked  from  them,  with 
the  Divine  image  crushed  out  of  them  ?  Brothers,  we 
cannot  explain  all  of  these  by  vice.  Drunkenness  and 
unthrift  do  account  for  much;  but  how  much  more 
is  explicable  only  by  the  following  facts  I  Many  men 
among  us  are  able  to  live  in  fashionable  streets  and 
keep  their  families  comfortable  only  by  paying  their 
employes  a  wage  upon  which  it  is  impossible  for  men 
to  be  strong  or  women  to  be  virtuous.  Are  those  not 
using  these  as  their  food  ?  The}'^  tell  us  that  if  they 
are  to  give  higher  wages  they  must  close  their  busi- 
ness, and  cease  paying  wages  at  all ;  and  they  are 
right  if  they  themselves  continue  to  live  on  the  scale 
they  do.    As  long  as  many  families  are  maintained  in 


Micah  ii.,  Hi.]    THE  PROPHET  OF  THE  POOR 


395 


comfort  by  the  profits  of  businesses  in  which  some  or 
all  of  the  employes  work  for  less  than  they  can  nourish 
and  repair  their  bodies  upon,  the  simple  fact  is  that  the 
one  set  are  feeding  upon  the  other  set.  It  may  be 
inevitable,  it  may  be  the  fault  of  the  system  and  not  of 
the  individual,  it  may  be  that  to  break  up  the  system 
would  mean  to  make  things  worse  than  ever — but 
all  the  same  the  truth  is  clear  that  many  families 
of  the  middle  class,  and  some  of  the  very  wealthiest 
of  the  land,  are  nourished  by  the  waste  of  the  lives  of 
the  poor.  Now  and  again  the  fact  is  acknowledged 
with  as  much  shamelessness  as  was  shown  by  any  tyrant 
in  the  days  of  Micah.  To  a  large  employer  of  labour, 
who  was  complaining  that  his  employes,  by  refusing 
to  live  at  the  low  scale  of  Belgian  workmen,  were 
driving  trade  from  this  country,  the  present  writer 
once  said  :  Would  it  not  meet  your  wishes  if,  instead 
of  your  workmen  being  levelled  down,  the  Belgians 
were  levelled  up  ?  This  would  make  the  competition 
fair  between  you  and  the  employers  in  Belgium."  His 
answer  was,  ''I  care  not  so  long  as  I  get  my  profits." 
He  was  a  religious  man,  a  liberal  giver  to  his  Church, 
and  he  died  leaving  more  than  one  hundred  thousand 
pounds. 

Micah's  tyrants,  too,  had  religion  to  support  them. 
A  number  of  the  hireling  prophets,  whom  we  have 
seen  both  Amos  and  Hosea  attack,  gave  their  blessing 
to  this  social  system,  which  crushed  the  poor,  for  they 
shared  its  profits.  They  lived  upon  the  alms  of  the 
rich,  and  flattered  according  as  they  were  fed.  To  them 
Micah  devotes  the  second  oracle  of  chap,  iii.,  and  we 
find  confirmed  by  his  words  the  principle  we  laid  down 
before,  that  in  that  age  the  one  great  difference  between 
the  false  and  the  true  prophet  was  what  it  has  been 


396 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


in  every  age  since  then  till  now—  an  ethical  difference ; 
and  not  a  difference  of  dogma,  or  tradition,  or  ecclesi- 
astical note.  The  false  prophet  spoke,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  for  himself  and  his  living.  He  sided 
with  the  rich ;  he  shut  his  eyes  to  the  social  condition 
of  the  people  ;  he  did  not  attack  the  sins  of  the  day. 
This  made  him  false — robbed  him  of  insight  and  the 
power  of  prediction.  But  the  true  prophet  exposed 
the  sins  of  his  people.  Ethical  insight  and  courage, 
burning  indignation  of  wrong,  clear  vision  of  the  facts 
of  the  day — this  was  what  Jehovah's  spirit  put  into 
him,  this  was  what  Micah  felt  to  be  inspiration. 
The  prophet  speaks  : — 

Thus  saiih  Jehovah  against  the  prophets  who  lead 

my  people  astray^ 
Who  while  they  have  ought  between  their  teeth 

proclaim  peace^ 
But  against  him  who  will  not  lay  to  their  mouths 

they  sanctify  war  I 
Wherefore  night  shall  be  yours  without  vision^ 
And  yours  shall  be  darkness  without  divination  ; 
And  the  sun  shall  go  down  on  the  prophets^ 
And  the  day  shall  darken  about  them; 
And  the  seers  shall  be  put  to  the  blush^ 
And  the  diviners  be  ashamed: 
All  of  them  shall  cover  the  beard^ 
For  there  shall  be  no  answer  from  God. 
But  I — /  am  full  of  power  by  the  spirit  of  Jehovah^ 

and  justice  and  mighty 
To  declare  to  Jacob  his  transgressions  and  to  Israel 

hts  sin. 

In  the  third  oracle  of  this  chapter  rulers  and 
prophets  are  combined — how  close   the  conspiracy 


Micah  ii.,  iii  ]    THE  PROPHET  OF  THE  POOR 


397 


between  them  I  It  is  remarkable  that,  in  harmony 
with  Isaiah,  Micah  speaks  no  word  against  the  king. 
But  evidently  Hezekiah  had  not  power  to  restrain  the 
nobles  and  the  rich.  When  this  oracle  was  uttered  it 
was  a  time  of  peace,  and  the  lavish  building,  which 
we  have  seen  to  be  so  marked  a  characteristic  of 
Israel  in  the  eighth  century,^  was  in  process.  Jeru- 
salem was  larger  and  finer  than  ever.  Ah,  it  was  a 
building  of  God's  own  city  in  blood  I  Judges,  priests  and 
prophets  were  all  alike  mercenary,  and  the  poor  were 
oppressed  for  a  reward.  No  walls,  however  sacred, 
could  stand  on  such  foundations.  Did  they  say  that 
they  built  her  so  grandly,  for  Jehovah's  sake?  Did 
they  believe  her  to  be  inviolate  because  He  was  in 
her  ?  They  should  see.  Zion — yes,  Zion — should  be 
ploughed  like  a  field,  and  the  Mountain  of  the  Lord's 
Temple  become  desolate. 
The  prophet  speaks  : — 

Hear  now  this^  O  chiefs  of  the  house  ofjacob^ 

And  rulers  of  the  house  of  Israel, 

Who  spurn  justice  and  twist  all  that  is  straight^ 

Building  Zion  in  bloody  and  Jerusalem  with  crime  ! 

Her  chiefs  give  judgment  for  a  bribe^ 

And  her  priests  oracles  for  a  reward^ 

And  her  prophets  divine  for  silver ; 

And  on  Jehovah  they  lean^  saying  : 

'*  Is  not  Jehovah  in  the  midst  of  us  ? 

Evil  cannot  come  at  us,^^ 

Therefore  for  your  sakes  shall  Zion  be  ploughed  like 
a  field^ 

And  Jerusalem  become  heaps  ^ 

And  the  Mount  of  the  House  mounds  in  a  jungle. 


*  See  above,  p.  33. 


398 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


It  is  extremely  difficult  for  us  to  place  ourselves  in 
a  state  of  society  in  which  bribery  is  prevalent,  and 
the  fingers  both  of  justice  and  of  religion  are  gilded  by 
their  suitors.  But  this  corruption  has  always  been 
common  in  the  East.  "An  Oriental  state  can  never 
altogether  prevent  the  abuse  by  which  officials,  small 
and  great,  enrich  themselves  in  illicit  ways."  ^  The 
strongest  government  takes  the  bribery  for  granted, 
and  periodically  prunes  the  rank  fortunes  of  its  great 
officials.  A  weak  government  lets  them  alone.  But 
in  either  case  the  poor  suffer  from  unjust  taxation 
and  from  laggard  or  perverted  justice.  Bribery  has 
alwa3^s  been  found,  even  in  the  more  primitive  and 
puritan  forms  of  Semitic  life.  Mr.  Doughty  has  borne 
testimony  with  regard  to  this  among  the  austere 
Wahabees  of  Central  Arabia.  "  When  I  asked  if 
there  were  no  handling  of  bribes  at  H^yil  by  those  who 
are  nigh  the  prince's  ear,  it  was  answered,  '  Nay.'  The 
Byzantine  corruption  cannot  enter  into  the  eternal  and 
noble  simplicity  of  this  people's  (airy)  life,  in  the  poor 
nomad  country ;  but  (we  have  seen)  the  art  is  not 
unknown  to  the  subtle-headed  Shammar  princes,  who 
thereby  help  themselves  with  the  neighbour  Turkish 
governments."  *  The  bribes  of  the  ruler  of  H^yil  ''are, 
according  to  the  shifting  weather  of  the  world,  to  great 
Ottoman  government  men  ;  and  now  on  account  of 
Kheybar,  he  was  gilding  some  of  theu*  crooked  fingers 
in  Medina." '  Nothing  marks  the  difference  of  Western 
government  more  than  the  absence  of  all  this,  especially 
from  our  courts  of  justice.    Yet  the  improvement  has 


*  Noldeke,  Sketches  from  Eastern  History^  translated  by  Black, 
pp.  ^ 

■  Ambits  De^^rta,  I.  607.  •  Id.,  U.  ZQ, 


Micahii.,iii.]    THE  PROPHET  OF  THE  POOR 


399 


only  come  about  within  comparatively  recent  centuries. 
What  a  large  space,  for  instance,  does  Langland  give 
to  the  arraigning  of  Mede,"  the  corrupter  of  all 
authorities  and  influences  in  the  society  of  his  day  ! 
Let  us  quote  his  words,  for  again  they  provide  a  most 
exact  parallel  to  Micah's,  and  may  enable  us  to  realise 
a  state  of  life  so  contrary  to  our  own.  It  is  Conscience 
who  arraigns  Mede  before  the  King  : — 

"  By  ihesus  with  here  jeweles  •  youre  justices  she  shendeth,' 
And  lith  ^  agtin  the  iawe  •  and  letteth  hym  the  gate, 
That  feith  may  noughte  have  his  forth*  •  here  floreines  go  so 
thikke, 

She  ledeth  the  lawe  as  hire  list  •  and  loved  ays  maketh 
And  doth  men  lese  thorw  hire  love  •  that  law  myghte  wynne, 
The  mase  *  for  a  mene  man  *  though  he  mote  •  hir  eure. 
Law  is  so  lord  cliche  *  and  loth  to  make  ende, 
Without  presentz  or  pens  •  •  she  pleseth  wel  fewe. 

•  •  *  ♦  •  • 

For  pore  men  mowe  *  have  no  powere  •  to  pleyne  •  hem  though 
thei  smerte ; 

Suche  a  maistre  is  Mede  *  amonge  men  of  gode."* 


'  Ruins. 
■  Lieth. 
•  Course, 


•  Confusion. 

•  Summon. 

•  Pence. 


'  May. 

•  Complain. 

•  Substance  or  property. 


CHAPTER  XXVll 


ON  TIME'S  HORIZON 
MiCAH  iv.  1-7, 

THE  immediate  prospect  of  Zion's  desolation  which 
closes  chap.  iii.  is  followed  in  the  opening  of 
chap.  iv.  by  an  ideal  picture  of  her  exaltation  and 
supremacy  in  the  issue  of  the  days.  We  can  hardly 
doubt  that  this  arrangement  has  been  made  of  pur- 
pose, nor  can  we  deny  that  it  is  natural  and  artistic. 
Whether  it  be  due  to  Micah  himself,  or  whether 
he  wrote  the  second  passage,  are  questions  we  have 
already  discussed.^  Like  so  many  others  of  their 
kind,  they  cannot  be  answered  with  certainty,  far  less 
with  dogmatism.  But  I  repeat,  I  see  no  conclusive 
reason  for  denying  either  to  the  circumstances  of 
Micah's  times  or  to  the  principles  of  their  prophecy 
the  possibility  of  such  a  hope  as  inspires  chap.  iv.  1-4. 
Remember  how  the  prophets  of  the  eighth  century 
identified  Jehovah  with  supreme  and  universal  right- 
eousness ;  remember  how  Amos  explicitly  condemned 
the  aggravations  of  war  and  slavery  among  the 
heathen  as  sins  against  Him,  and  how  Isaiah  claimed 
the  future  gains  of  Tyrian  commerce  as  gifts  for  His 
sanctuary ;  remember  how  Amos  heard  His  voice  come 
forth  from  Jerusalem,  and  Isaiah  counted  upon  the 


*  See  above,  pp.  365  flf. 
400 


MicabwV.  .  ^]  ON  TIME'S  HORIZON 


401 


eternal  inviolateness  of  His  shrine  and  city, — and  you 
will  not  think  it  impossible  for  a  third  Judaean  prophet 
of  that  age,  whether  he  was  Micah  or  another,  to 
have  drawn  the  prospect  of  Jerusalem  which  now 
opens  before  us. 

It  is  the  far-off  horizon  of  time,  which,  like  the 
spatial  horizon,  always  seems  a  fixed  and  eternal 
line,  but  as  constantly  shifts  with  the  shifting  of  our 
standpoint  or  elevation.  Every  prophet  has  his  own 
vision  of  the  latter  days  ;  seldom  is  that  prospect  the  same. 
Determined  by  the  circumstances  of  the  seer,  by  the 
desires  these  prompt  or  only  partially  fulfil,  it  changes 
from  age  to  age.  The  ideal  is  always  shaped  by  the 
real,  and  in  this  vision  of  the  eighth  century  there 
is  no  exception.  This  is  not  any  of  the  ideals  of  later 
ages,  when  the  evil  was  the  oppression  of  the  Lord's 
people  by  foreign  armies  or  their  scattering  in  exile  ; 
it  is  not,  in  contrast  to  these,  the  spectacle  of  the 
armies  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts  imbrued  in  the  blood  of 
the  heathen,  or  of  the  columns  of  returning  captives 
filling  all  the  narrow  roads  to  Jerusalem,  like  streams 
in  the  south ;  nor,  again,  is  it  a  nation  of  priest? 
gathering  about  a  rebuilt  temple  and  a  restored  ritual. 
But  because  the  pain  of  the  greatest  minds  of  the 
eighth  century  was  the  contradiction  between  faith  in 
the  God  of  Zion  as  Universal  Righteousness  and  the 
experience  that,  nevertheless,  Zion  had  absolutely  no 
influence  upon  surrounding  nations,  this  vision  shows 
a  day  when  Zion's  influence  will  be  as  great  as  her 
right,  and  from  far  and  wide  the  nations  whom  Amos 
has  condemned  for  their  transgressions  against  Jehovah 
will  acknowledge  His  law,  and  be  drawn  to  Jerusalem 
to  learn  of  Him.  Observe  that  nothing  is  said  of 
Israel  going  forth  to  teach  the  nations  the  law  of  the 

VOL.  I.  26 


402 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Lord  That  is  the  ideal  of  a  later  age,  when  Jews 
were  scattered  across  the  world.  Here,  in  conformitj; 
with  the  experience  of  a  still  un travelled  people,  we 
see  the  Gentiles  drawing  in  upon  the  Mountain  of  the 
House  of  the  Lord.  With  the  same  lofty  impartiality 
which  distinguishes  the  oracles  of  Amos  on  the  heathen, 
the  prophet  takes  no  account  of  their  enmity  to  Israel ; 
nor  is  there  any  talk — such  as  later  generations  were 
almost  forced  by  the  hostility  of  neighbouring  tribes 
to  indulge  in — of  politically  subduing  them  to  the  king 
in  Zion.  Jehovah  will  arbitrate  between  them,  and 
the  result  shall  be  the  institution  of  a  great  peace^ 
with  no  special  political  privilege  to  Israel,  unless  this 
be  understood  in  ver.  5,  which  speaks  of  such  security 
to  life  as  was  impossible,  at  that  time  at  least,  in  all 
•borderlands  of  Israel.  But  among  the  heathen  them- 
selves there  will  be  a  resting  from  war :  the  factions 
and  ferocities  of  that  wild  Semitic  world,  which  Amos 
so  vividly  characterised,^  shall  cease.  In  all  this  there 
is  nothing  beyond  the  possibility  of  suggestion  by  the 
circumstances  of  the  eighth  century  or  by  the  spirit  of 
its  prophecy. 

A  prophet  speaks : — 

And  it  shall  come  to  pass  tn  the  tssue  of  the  days^ 


*  See  above,  Chap.  VII. 

*  n^*in&<  is  the  hindmost,  furthest,  ultimate,  whether  of  space 
(Psalm  cxxxix.  9:  "the  uttermost  part  of  the  sea"),  or  of  time 
(Deut.  xi.  12:  "the  end  of  the  year  ").  It  is  the  end  as  compared 
with  the  beginning,  the  sequel  with  the  start,  the  future  with  the 
present  (Job  xlii.  12).  In  Proverbs  it  is  chiefly  used  in  the  moral 
sense  of  issue  or  result.  But  it  chiefly  occurs  in  the  phrase  used 
here,  D^DNI  n^"inX,  not  "the  latter  days,"  as  A.V.,  nor  ultimate  days, 
for  in  these  phrases  lurks  the  idea  of  time  having  an  end,  but  the 
after-days  (Cheyne),  or,  better  still,  the  issue  of  the  days. 


Micah iv.  1-7.]  ON  TIME'S  HORIZON 


403 


That  the  Mount  of  the  House  of  Jeho  vah  shall  be 
established  on  the  tops  ^  of  the  mountains^ 

And  lifted  shall  it  be  above  the  hills ^ 

And  peoples  shall  flow  to  it^ 

And  many  nations  shall  go  and  say : 

*'  Come^  and  let  us  up  to  the  Mount  of  Jeh&trrAh^ 

And  to  the  House  of  the  God  of  Jacob^ 

That  He  may  teach  us  of  His  ways, 

And  we  will  walk  in  His  paths ^ 

For  from  Zion  goeth  forth  the  laWf 

And  the  word  of  Jehovah  from  out  of Jertti^alem  I 

And  He  shall  judge  between  many  peoples  ^ 

And  decide  ^  for  strong  nations  far  and  wide  ;  ' 

And  they  shall  hammer  their  swurds  into  plough-- 
shares^ 

And  their  spears  into  pruning-hooks : 

They  shall  not  lift  upy  nation  agatnst  nation^  a  sword, 

And  they  shall  not  any  more  learn  war. 

Every  man  shall  dwell  under  hs  vine 

And  under  his  fig-tree^ 

And  none  shall  make  afraid; 

For  the  mouth  of  Jehovah  of  Hosts  has  spoken. 

What  connection  this  last  verse  is  intended  to  have 
with  the  preceding  is  not  quite  obvious.  It  may  mean 
that  every  family  among  the  Gentiles  shall  dwell  in 
peace ;  or,  as  suggested  above,  that  with  the  volun- 
tary disarming  of  the  surrounaing  heathendom,  Israel 
herself  shall  dwell  secure,  in  no  fear  of  border  raids  and 
slave-hunting  expeditions,  with  which  especially  Micah's 
Shephelah  and  other  borderlands  were  familiar.  The 
verse  does  not  occur  in  Isaiah'a  quotation  of  the  three 
which  precede  it.    We  can  scarcely  suppose,  fain  though 


'  LXX.        ■  Or  arbitrate.       •  Literally  :  "  up  to  far  away." 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


we  may  be  to  do  so,  that  Micah  added  the  verse  in  order 
to  exhibit  the  future  correction  of  the  evils  he  has  been 
deploring  in  chap.  iii. :  the  insecurity  of  the  householder 
in  Israel  before  the  unscrupulous  land-grabbing  of  the 
wealthy.  Such  are  not  the  evils  from  which  this 
passage  prophesies  redemption.  It  deals  only,  like  the 
first  oracles  of  Amos,  with  the  relentlessness  and 
ferocity  of  the  heathen  :  under  Jehovah's  arbitrament 
these  shall  be  at  peace,  and  whether  among  themselves 
or  in  Israel,  hitherto  so  exposed  to  their  raids,  men 
shall  dwell  in  unalarmed  possession  of  their  houses  and 
fields.  Security  from  war,  not  from  social  tyranny,  is 
what  is  promised. 

The  following  verse  (5)  gives  in  a  curious  way  the 
contrast  of  the  present  to  that  future  in  which  all  men 
•will  own  the  sway  of  one  God.  For  at  the  present 
time  all  the  nations  are  walking  each  in  the  name  of  his 
Gody  but  we  go  in  the  name  0/  Jehovah  for  ever  and  aye. 

To  which  vision,  complete  in  itself,  there  has  been 
added  by  another  hand,  of  what  date  we  cannot  tell, 
a  further  effect  of  God's  blessed  influence.  To  peace 
among  men  shall  be  added  healing  and  redemption,  the 
incrnthering  of  the  outcast  and  the  care  of  the  crippled. 

In  that  day — 'tis  the  oracle  of  Jehovah — 

/  will  gather  the  halt^ 
And  the  cast-off  I  will  bring  in,  and  all  that  I  haie 
afflicted  ; 

And  I  will  make  the  halt  for  a  Remnant^ 

And  her  that  was  weakened  ^  into  a  strong  people , 

And  Jehovah  shall  reign  over  them 

In  the  Mount  of  Zion  from  now  and  for  ever. 


*  That  which  shall  abide  and  be  the  stock  of  the  future. 
»  LXX.  cast  off. 


Micahiv.l-7.]         ON  TIME'S  HORIZON 


405 


Whatever  be  the  origin  of  the  separate  oracles  which 
compose  this  passage  (iv.  1-7),  they  form  as  they  now 
stand  a  beautiful  whole,  rising  from  Peace  through 
Freedom  to  Love.  They  begin  with  obedience  to  God 
and  they  culminate  in  the  most  glorious  service  which 
God  or  man  may  undertake,  the  service  of  saving  the 
lost.  See  how  the  Divine  spiral  ascends.  We  have, 
first,  Religion  the  centre  and  origin  of  all,  compelling 
the  attention  of  men  by  its  historical  evidence  of  justice 
and  righteousness.  We  have  the  world's  willingness 
to  learn  of  it.  We  have  the  results  in  the  widening 
brotherhood  of  nations,  in  universal  Peace,  in  Labour 
freed  from  War,  and  with  none  of  her  resources  absorbed 
by  the  conscriptions  and  armaments  which  in  our  times 
are  deemed  necessary  for  enforcing  peace.  We  have 
the  universal  diffusion  and  security  of  Property,  the 
prosperity  and  safety  of  the  humblest  home.  And, 
finally,  we  have  this  free  strength  and  wealth  inspired 
by  the  example  of  God  Himself  to  nourish  the  broken 
and  to  gather  in  the  forwandered. 

Such  is  the  ideal  world,  seen  and  promised  two 
thousand  five  hundred  years  ago,  out  of  as  real  an 
experience  of  human  sin  and  failure  as  ever  mankind 
awoke  to.  Are  we  nearer  the  Vision  to-day,  or  does 
it  still  hang  upon  time's  horizon,  that  line  which  seems 
so  stable  from  every  seer's  point  of  view,  but  which 
moves  from  the  generations  as  fast  as  they  travel  to  it  ? 

So  far  from  this  being  so,  there  is  much  in  the 
Vision  that  is  not  only  nearer  us  than  it  was  to  the 
Hebrew  prophets,  and  not  only  abreast  of  us,  but 
actually  achieved  and  behind  us,  as  we  live  and  strive 
still  onward.  Yes,  brothers,  actually  behind  us  I 
History  has  in  part  fulfilled  the  promised  influence  of 
religion  upon  the  nations.    The  Unity  of  God  hajb  been 


4o6 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


owned,  and  the  civilised  peoples  bow  to  the  standards 
of  justice  and  of  mercy  first  revealed  from  Mount 
Zion.  Many  nations  and  powerful  nations  acknowledge 
the  arbitrament  of  the  God  of  the  Bible.  We  have 
had  revealed  that  High  Fatherhood  of  which  every 
family  in  heaven  and  earth  is  named  ;  and  wherever 
that  is  believed  the  brotherhood  of  men  is  confessed. 
We  have  seen  Sin,  that  profound  discord  in  man  and 
estrangement  from  God,  of  which  all  human  hatreds 
and  malices  are  the  fruit,  atoned  for  and  reconciled  by 
a  Sacrifice  in  face  of  which  human  pride  and  passion 
stand  abashed.  The  first  part  of  the  Vision  is  fulfilled. 
The  nations  stream  to  the  God  of  Jerusalem  and  His 
Christ,  And  though  to-day  our  Peace  be  but  a  paradox, 
and  the  "  Christian "  nations  stand  still  from  war  not 
in  love,  but  in  fear  of  one  another,  there  are  in  every 
nation  an  increasing  number  of  men  and  women,  with 
growing  influence,  who,  without  being  fanatics  for  peace, 
or  blind  to  the  fact  that  war  may  be  a  people's  duty 
in  fulfilment  of  its  own  destiny  or  in  relief  of  the 
enslaved,  do  yet  keep  themselves  from  foolish  forms  of 
patriotism,  and  by  their  recognition  of  each  other  across 
all  national  differences  make  sudden  and  unconsidered 
war  more  and  more  of  an  impossibility.  I  write  this 
in  the  sound  of  that  call  to  stand  upon  arms  whicl; 
broke  like  thunder  upon  our  Christmas  peace ;  but. 
amid  all  the  ignoble  jealousies  and  hot  rashness  which 
prevail,  how  the  air,  burned  clean  by  that  first  electric 
discharge,  has  filled  with  the  determination  that  wai 
shall  not  happen  in  the  interests  of  mere  wealth  oi 
at  the  caprice  of  a  tyrant  I  God  help  us  to  use  this 
peace  for  the  last  ideals  of  His  prophet  1  May  we 
see,  not  that  of  which  our  modern  peace  has  been  fai 
too  full,  mere  freedom  for  the  wealth  of  the  few  te 


Micah  iv.  1-7.]  ON  TIME'S  HORIZON 


407 


increase  at  the  expense  of  the  mass  of  mankind.  May 
our  Peace  mean  the  gradual  disarmament  of  the  nations, 
the  increase  of  labour,  the  diffusion  of  property,  and, 
above  all,  the  redemption  of  the  waste  of  the  people 
and  the  recovery  of  our  outcasts.  Without  this,  peace 
is  no  peace;  and  better  were  war  to  burn  out  by  its 
fierce  fires  those  evil  humours  of  our  secure  comfort, 
which  render  us  insensible  to  the  needy  and  the  fallen 
at  our  side.  Without  the  redemptive  forces  at  work 
which  Christ  brought  to  earth,  peace  is  no  peace ;  and 
the  cruelties  of  war,  that  slay  and  mutilate  so  many, 
are  as  nothing  to  the  cruelties  of  a  peace  which  leaves 
us  insensible  to  the  outcasts  and  the  perishing,  of 
whom  there  are  so  many  even  in  our  civilisation. 

One  application  of  the  prophecy  may  be  made  at  this 
moment.  We  are  told  by  those  who  know  best  and 
have  most  responsibility  in  the  matter  that  an  ancient 
Church  and  people  of  Christ  are  being  left  a  prey  to 
the  wrath  of  an  infidel  tyrant,  not  because  Chris- 
tendom is  without  strength  to  compel  him  to  deliver, 
but  because  to  use  the  strength,  would  be  to  imperil 
the  peace,  of  Christendom.  It  is  an  ignoble  peace 
which  cannot  use  the  forces  of  redemption,  and  with 
the  cry  of  Armenia  in  our  ears  the  Unity  of  Europe  is 
but  a  mockery. 


CHAPTER  XXVin 


THE    KING    TO  COME 
MiCAH  iv.  8 — V 

WHEN  a  people  has  to  be  purged  of  long 
injustice,  when  some  high  aim  of  liberty  or 
of  order  has  to  be  won,  it  is  remarkable  how  often 
the  drama  of  revolution  passes  through  three  acts. 
There  is  first  the  period  of  criticism  and  of  vision, 
in  which  men  feel  discontent,  dream  of  new  things, 
and  put  their  hopes  into  systems  :  it  seems  then  as 
if  the  future  were  to  come  of  itself  But  often  a 
catastrophe,  relevant  or  irrelevant,  ensues  :  the  visions 
pale  before  a  vast  conflagration,  and  poet,  philosopher 
and  prophet  disappear  under  the  feet  of  a  mad  mob 
of  wreckers.  Yet  this  is  often  the  greatest  period  of 
all,  for  somewhere  in  the  midst  of  it  a  strong  character 
is  forming,  and  men,  by  the  very  anarchy,  are  being 
taught,  in  preparation  for  him,  the  indispensableness 
of  obedience  and  loyalty.  With  their  chastened  minds 
he  achieves  the  third  act,  and  fulfils  all  of  the  early 
vision  that  God's  ordeal  by  fire  has  proved  worthy  to 
survive.  Thus  history,  when  distraught,  rallies  again 
upon  the  Man. 

To  this  law  the  prophets  of  Israel  only  gradually 
gave  expression.  We  find  no  trace  of  it  among  the 
earliest  of  them  ;  and  in  the  essential  faith  of  all  there 

408 


Micah  iv.  8-v.]  THE  KING  TO  COME  409 

was  much  which  predisposed  them  against  the  convic- 
tion of  its  necessity.  For,  on  the  one  hand,  the  seers 
were  so  filled  with  the  inherent  truth  and  inevitableness 
of  their  visions,  that  they  described  these  as  if  already 
realised ;  there  was  no  room  for  a  great  figure  to  rise 
before  the  future,  for  with  a  rush  the  future  was  upon 
them.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  ever  a  principle  of 
prophecy  that  God  is  able  to  dispense  with  human  aid. 

In  presence  of  the  Divine  omnipotence  all  secondary 
causes,  all  interposition  on  the  part  of  the  creature, 
fall  away."^  The  more  striking  is  it  that  before  long 
the  prophets  should  have  begun,  not  only  to  look  for 
a  Man,  but  to  paint  him  as  the  central  figure  of  their 
hopes.  In  Hosea,  who  has  no  such  promise,  we  already 
see  the  instinct  at  work.  The  age  of  revolution  which 
he  describes  is  cursed  by  its  want  of  men  :  there  is 
no  great  leader  of  the  people  sent  from  God;  those 
who  come  to  the  front  are  the  creatures  of  faction  and 
party ;  there  is  no  king  from  God.*  How  different 
it  had  been  in  the  great  days  of  old,  when  God  had 
ever  worked  for  Israel  through  some  man — a  Moses, 
a  Gideon,  a  Samuel,  but  especially  a  David.  Thus 
memory  equally  with  the  present  dearth  of  personalities 
prompted  to  a  great  desire,  and  with  passion  Israel 
waited  for  a  Man.  The  hope  of  the  mother  for  her 
firstborn,  the  pride  of  the  father  in  his  son,  the  eager- 
ness of  the  woman  for  her  lover,  the  devotion  ol  the 
slave  to  his  liberator,  the  enthusiasm  of  soldiers  for 
their  captain — unite  these  noblest  affections  of  the 
human  heart  and  you  shall  yet  fail  to  reach  the  pas- 
sion and  the  glory  with  which  prophecy  looked  for  the 
King  to  Come.    Each  age,  of  course,  expected  him  in 


»  Schultz,  A.  r.  TheoL,  p.  722. 


■  Sec  above,  pp.  276  ff. 


410 


THE  TIVELVE  PROPHETS 


the  qualities  of  power  and  character  needed  for  its 
own  troubles,  and  the  ideal  changed  from  glory  unto 
glory.  From  valour  and  victory  in  war,  it  became 
peace  and  good  government,  care  for  the  poor  and 
the  oppressed,  sympathy  with  the  sufferings  of  the 
whole  people,  but  especially  of  the  righteous  among 
them,  with  fidelity  to  the  truth  delivered  unto  the  fathers, 
and,  finally,  a  conscience  for  the  people's  sin,  a  bearing 
of  their  punishment  and  a  travail  for  their  spiritual  re- 
demption. But  all  these  qualities  and  functions  were 
gathered  upon  an  individual — a  Victor,  a  King,  a 
Prophet,  a  Martyr,  a  Servant  of  the  Lord. 

Micah  stands  among  the  first,  if  he  is  not  the  very 
first,  who  thus  focussed  the  hopes  of  Israel  upon  a 
great  Redeemer ;  and  his  promise  of  Him  shares  all 
the  characteristics  just  described.  In  his  book  it  lies 
next  a  number  of  brief  oracles  with  which  we  are 
unable  to  trace  its  immediate  connection.  They  differ 
from  it  in  style  and  rhythm :  they  are  in  verse,  while 
it  seems  to  be  in  prose.  They  do  not  appear  to  have 
been  uttered  along  with  it.  But  they  reflect  the 
troubles  out  of  which  the  Hero  is  expected  to  emerge, 
and  the  deliverance  which  He  shall  accomplish,  though 
at  first  they  picture  the  latter  without  any  hint  of 
Himself.  They  apparently  describe  an  invasion  which 
is  actually  in  course,  rather  than  one  which  is  near 
and  inevitable ;  and  if  so  they  can  only  date  from 
Sennacherib's  campaign  against  Judah  in  701  B.C. 
Jerusalem  is  in  siege,  standing  alone  in  the  land,^  like 
one  of  those  solitary  towers  with  folds  round  them 

*  Wellhausen  declares  that  this  is  unsuitable  to  the  position  of 
Jerusalem  in  the  eighth  century,  and  virtually  implies  her  ruin  and 
desolation.  But,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  not  so :  Jerusalem  is  still 
standing,  though  alone  (c£  the  similar  figure  in  Isa.  i.).  Conae- 


Micah  iv.  8-v.]  THE  KING  TO  COME 


4" 


which  were  built  here  and  there  upon  the  border 
pastures  of  Israel  for  defence  of  the  flock  against  the 
raiders  of  the  desert.^  The  prophet  sees  the  possi- 
bility of  Zion's  capitulation,  but  the  people  shall  leave 
her  only  for  their  deliverance  elsewhere.  Many  are 
gathered  against  her,  but  he  sees  them  as  sheaves 
upon  the  floor  for  Zion  to  thresh.  This  oracle  (vv. 
11-13)  cannot,  of  course,  have  been  uttered  at  the  same 
time  as  the  previous  one,  but  there  is  no  reason  why 
the  same  prophet  should  not  have  uttered  both  at 
different  periods.  Isaiah  had  prospects  of  the  fate  of 
Jerusalem  which  differ  quite  as  much.*  Once  more 
(ver.  14)  the  blockade  is  established.  Israel's  ruler 
is  helpless,  smitten  on  the  cheek  by  the  foe}  It  is  to 
this  last  picture  that  the  promise  of  the  Deliverer  is 
attached. 

The  prophet  speaks : — 

But  thou^  O  Tower  of  the  Flock^ 
Hill  of  the  daughter  of  Zion^ 
To  thee  shall  arrive  the  former  rule, 
And  the  kingdom  shall  come  to  the 
Zion. 

Now  wherefore  criest  thou  so  loud  ? 


quently  the  contradiction  which  Wellhausen  sees  between  this 
( ighth  verse  and  vv,  9,  10,  does  not  exist.    He  grants  that  the 
-'attcr  may  belong  to  the  time  of  Sennacherib's  invasion — unless  it  be 
a  vaticinium  post  eventum  I 
'  See  above,  p.  32. 

'  This  in  answer  to  Wellhausen,  who  thinks  the  two  oracles  in- 
mpatible,  and  that  the  second  one  is  similar  to  the  eschatological 
:  r  cdiction  common  from  Ezekiel  onwards.    Jerusalem,  however,  is 
irely  still  standing. 

'  Even  Wellhausen  agrees  that  this  verse  is  most  suitably  dated 
'  om  the  time  of  Micah. 


daughter  of 


4ia 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


Is  there  no  king  in  thee^  or  is  thy  counsellor  perished^ 
That  throes  have  seized  thee  like  a  woman  in  dhild- 
birth  ? 

Quiver  and  writhe^  daughter  of  Zion^  like  one  in 

childbirth : 
For  now  must  thou  forth  from  the  city, 
And  encamp  on  the  field  (and  come  unto  Babel)  ;  * 
There  shall  thou  be  rescued, 

There  shall  Jehovah  redeem  thee  from  the  hand  of 
thy  foes  I 

And  now  gather  against  thee  many  nations,  that 
say, 

Let  her  be  violate,  that  our  eyes  may  fasten  on 
Zionr' 

But  they  know  not  the  plans  of  Jehovah, 
Nor  understand  they  His  counsel, 
For  He  hath  gathered  them  in  like  sheaves  to  the 
floor. 

Up  and  thresh,  O  daughter  of  Zion  I 
For  thy  horns  will  I  turn  into  iron, 
And  thy  hoofs  will  I  turn  into  brass; 
And  thou  wilt  beat  down  many  nations^ 
And  devote  to  Jehovah  their  spoil, 
And  their  wealth  to  the  Lord  of  all  earth. 

Now  press  thyself  together,  thou  daughter  of  pressure:^ 

The  foe  hath  set  a  wall  around  us, 

With  a  rod  they  smite  on  the  cheek  Israelis  regent  I 


*  Those  who  maintain  the  exilic  date  understand  by  this  Jehovah 
Himself.    In  any  case  it  may  be  He  who  is  meant, 

•  The  words  in  parenthesis  are  perhaps  a  gloss. 
'  Uncertain. 


:>1icahiv.8-v.]  THE  KING  TO  COME 


4«3 


But  thouj  Beth-Ephrath}  smallest  among  the  thou- 
sands ^  of  Judah^ 

From  thee  unto  Me  shall  come  forth  the  Ruler  to 
be  in  Israel ! 

Yea,  of  old  are  His  goings  forth,  from  the  days  of 
long  ago  I 

Therefore  shall  He  suffer  them  till  the  time  that  one 

bearing  shall  have  born? 
{Then  the  rest  of  His  brethren  shall  return  with  the 

children  of  Israel.)^ 
And  He  shall  stand  and  shepherd  His  flock  ^  in  the 

strength  of  Jehovah, 
In  the  pride  of  the  name  of  His  God. 
And  they  shall  abide  I 

For  now  is  He  great  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
And  Such  an  One  shall  be  our  Peace? 

Bethlehem  was  the  birthplace  of  David,  but  when 
Micah  says  that  the  Deliverer  shall  emerge  from  her 
he  does  not  only  mean  what  Isaiah  affirms  by  his 
promise  of  a  rod  from  the  stock  of  Jesse,  that  the  King 
to  Come  shall  spring  from  the  one  great  dynasty  in 
Judah.  Micah  means  rather  to  emphasise  the  rustic 
and  popular  origin  of  the  Messiah,  too  small  to  be  among 
the  thousands  of  Judah,  David,  the  son  of  Jesse  the 
Bethlehemite,  was  a  dearer  figure  than  Solomon  son 
of  David  the  King.  He  impressed  the  people's  imagina- 
tion, because  he  had  sprung  from  themselves,  and  in 

^  The  name  Bethlehem  is  probably  a  later  insertion.    I  read  with 
Hitzig  and  others  "l^VVH  HIDN,  and  omit  T\Vrh, 
^  Smallest  form  of  district:  cf.  English  hundreds. 
'  Cf.  the  prophecy  of  Immanuel,  Isa.  vii. 

*  This  seems  like  a  later  insertion :  it  disturbs  both  sense  and  rh3rthm. 

*  So  LXX. 

"  Take  this  clause  from  ver.  4  and  the  following  oracle  and  put  it 
with  ver.  3. 


414 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


his  lifetime  had  been  the  popular  rival  of  an  unlovable 
despot.  Micah  himself  was  the  prophet  of  the  country 
as  distinct  from  the  capital,  of  the  peasants  as  against 
the  rich  who  oppressed  them.  When,  therefore,  he 
fixed  upon  Bethlehem  as  the  Messiah's  birthplace,  he 
doubtless  desired,  without  departing  from  the  orthodox 
hope  in  the  Davidic  dynasty,  to  throw  round  its  new 
representative  those  associations  which  had  so  endeared 
to  the  people  their  father-monarch.  The  shepherds 
of  Judah,  that  strong  source  of  undefiled  life  from 
which  the  fortunes  of  the  state  and  prophecy  itself  had 
ever  been  recuperated,  should  again  send  forth  salvation. 
Had  not  Micah  already  declared  that,  after  the  over- 
throw of  the  capital  and  the  rulers,  the  glory  of  Israel 
should  come  to  Adullam,  where  of  old  David  had 
gathered  its  soiled  and  scattered  fragments? 

We  may  conceive  how  such  a  promise  would  affect 
the  crushed  peasants  for  whom  Micah  wrote.  A 
Saviour,  who  was  one  of  themselves,  not  born  up  there 
in  the  capital,  foster-brother  of  the  very  nobles  who 
oppressed  them,  but  born  among  the  people,  sharer 
of  tl  r  toils  and  of  their  wrongs  1 — it  would  bring 
hope  to  every  broken  heart  among  the  disinherited  poor 
of  Israel.  Yet  meantime,  be  it  observed,  this  was  a 
promise,  not  for  the  peasants  only,  but  for  the  whole 
people.  In  the  present  danger  of  the  nation  the  class 
disputes  are  forgotten,  and  the  hopes  of  Israel  gather 
upon  their  Hero  for  a  common  deliverance  from  the 
foreign  foe.  Such  an  One  shall  be  our  peace.  But  in 
the  peace  He  is  to  stand  and  shepherd  His  flock^  conspic- 
uous and  watchful.  The  country-folk  knew  what  such 
a  figure  meant  to  themselves  for  security  and  weal  on 
the  land  of  their  fathers.  Heretofore  their  rulers  had 
not  been  shepherds,  but  thieves  and  robbers. 


Micah  iv.  8-v.]  THE  KING  TO  COME 


4IS 


We  can  imagine  the  contrast  which  such  a  vision 
must  have  offered  to  the  fancies  of  the  false  prophets. 
What  were  they  beside  this  ?  Deity  descending  in 
fire  and  thunder,  with  all  the  other  features  of  the 
ancient  Theophanies  that  had  now  become  so  much 
cant  in  the  mouths  of  mercenary  traditionalists.  Be- 
sides those,  how  sane  was  this,  how  footed  upon  the 
earth,  how  practical,  how  popular  in  the  best  sense  1 

We  see,  then,  the  value  of  Micah's  prophecy  for  his 
own  day.  Has  it  also  any  value  for  ours — especially 
in  that  aspect  of  it  which  must  have  appealed  to  the 
hearts  of  those  for  whom  chiefly  Micah  arose  ?  "  Is  it 
wise  to  paint  the  Messiah,  to  paint  Christ,  so  much  as 
a  working-man  ?  Is  it  not  much  more  to  our  purpose 
to  remember  the  general  fact  of  His  humanity,  by  which 
He  is  able  to  be  Priest  and  Brother  to  all  classes,  high 
and  low,  rich  and  poor,  the  noble  and  the  peasant  alike  ? 
Is  not  the  Man  of  Sorrows  a  much  wider  name  than 
the  Man  of  Labour  ?  "    Let  us  answer  these  questions. 

The  value  of  such  a  prophecy  of  Christ  lies  in  the 
correctives  which  it  supplies  to  the  Christian  apocalypse 
and  theology.  Both  of  these  have  raised  Christ  to 
a  throne  too  far  above  the  actual  circumstance  of  His 
earthly  ministry  and  the  theatre  of  His  eternal  sym- 
pathies. Whether  enthroned  in  the  praises  of  heaven, 
or  by  scholasticism  relegated  to  an  ideal  and  abstract 
humanity,  Christ  is  lifted  away  from  touch  with  the 
common  people.  But  His  lowly  origin  was  a  fact. 
He  sprang  from  the  most  democratic  of  peoples.  His 
ancestor  was  a  shepherd,  and  His  mother  a  peasant 
girl.  He  Himself  was  a  carpenter  :  at  home,  as  His 
parables  show,  in  the  fields  and  the  folds  and  the 
barns  of  His  country ;  with  the  servants  of  the  great 
houses,  with  the  unemployed  in  the  market ;  with  the 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


woman  in  the  hovel  seeking  one  piece  of  silver,  with 
the  shepherd  on  the  moors  seeking  the  lost  sheep. 
The  poor  had  the  gospel  preached  to  them;  and  the 
common  people  heard  Him  gladly.  As  the  peasants 
of  Judaea  must  have  listened  to  Micah's  promise  of  His 
origin  among  themselves  with  new  hope  and  patience, 
so  in  the  Roman  empire  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ 
was  welcomed  chiefly,  as  the  Apostles  and  the  Fathers 
bear  witness,  by  the  lowly  and  the  labouring  of  every 
nation.  In  the  great  persecution  which  bears  his  name, 
the  Emperor  Domitian  heard  *that  there  were  two 
relatives  alive  of  this  Jesus  whom  so  many  acknow- 
ledged as  their  King,  and  he  sent  for  them  that  he 
might  put  them  to  death.  But  when  they  came,  he 
asked  them  to  hold  up  their  hands,  and  seeing  these 
brown  and  chapped  with  toil,  he  dismissed  the  men, 
saying,  From  such  slaves  we  have  nothing  to  fear." 
Ah  but,  Emperor  I  it  is  just  the  horny  hands  of  this 
religion  that  thou  and  thy  gods  have  to  fear  I  Any 
cynic  or  satirist  of  thy  literature  from  Celsus  onwards 
could  have  told  thee  that  it  was  by  men  who  worked 
with  their  hands  for  their  daily  bread,  by  domestics, 
artisans  and  all  manner  of  slaves,  that  the  power  of 
this  King  should  spread,  which  meant  destruction  to 
thee  and  thine  empire  I  From  little  Bethlehem  came  forth 
the  Ruler ^  and  now  He  is  great  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

There  follows  upon  this  prophecy  of  the  Shepherd 
a  curious  fragment  which  divides  His  office  among  a 
number  of  His  order,  though  the  grammar  returns 
towards  the  end  to  One.  The  mention  of  Assyria 
stamps  this  oracle  also  as  of  the  eighth  century.  Mark 
the  refrain  which  opens  and  closes  it.^ 

*  Wellhausen  alleges  in  the  numbers  another  trace  of  the  late 
Apocalyptic  writings — but  this  is  not  conclusive. 


Micah  iv.  8-v.]  THE  KING  TO  COME 


4«7 


When  Asshur  cometh  into  our  land^ 

And  when  he  marcheth  on  our  borders^ 

Then  shall  we  raise  against  him  ueven  shepherds 

And  eight  princes  of  men. 

And  they  shall  shepherd  AsshUr  with  a  sword y 

And  Nimrod*s  land  with  her  own  bare  blades 

And  He  shall  deliver  from  AsshUr, 

When  he  cometh  into  our  land^ 

And  marcheth  upon  our  borders. 

There  follows  an  oracle  in  which  there  is  no 
evidence  of  Micah's  hand  or  of  his  times ;  but  if  it 
carries  any  proof  of  a  date,  it  seems  a  late  one. 

And  the  remnant  of  facob  shall  be  among  many 

peoples 
Like  the  dew  from  fehovah^ 
Like  showers  upon  grass^ 
Which  wait  not  for  a  man^ 
Nor  tarry  for  the  children  of  men. 
And  the  remnant  of  Jacob  {among  nations^)  among 

many  peoples^ 
Shall  be  like  the  lion  among  the  beasts  of  the  jungle^ 
Like  a  young  lion  among  the  sheepfolds, 
WhOf  when  he  cometh  by^  treadeth  and  teareth^ 
And  none  may  deliver. 
Let  thine  hand  be  high  on  thine  adversaries^ 
And  all  thine  enemies  be  cut  ojff  I 

Finally  in  this  section  we  have  an  oracle  full  of 
the  notes  we  had  from  Micah  in  the  first  two  chapters. 
It  explains  itself.    Compare  Micah  ii.  and  Isaiah  ii. 


•  So  LXX.    Cf.  the  refrain  at  the  close. 
VOL.  I.  27 


4i8  THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


And  it  shall  be  in  that  day — Uis  the  oracle  oj 

Jehovah — 

That  I  will  cut  off  thy  horses  from  the  midst  of  thee^ 
And  I  will  destroy  thy  chariots; 
That  I  will  cut  off  the  cities  of  thy  land^ 
And  tear  down  all  thy  fortresses. 
And  I  will  cut  off  thine  enchantments  from  thy 
hand, 

And  thou  shall  have  no  more  soothsayers ; 

And  I  will  cut  off  thine  images  and  thy  pillars  from 

the  midst  of  thee, 
And  thou  shall  not  bow  down  any  more  to  the  work 

of  thy  hands; 
And  I  will  uproot  thine  Asheras  from  the  midst  oj 

thee, 

And  will  destroy  thine  idols. 

So  shall  I  do,  in  My  wrath  and  Mine  anger, 

Vengeance  to  the  nations,  who  have  not  known  Me. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 


THE  REASONABLENESS  OF  TRUE  RELIGION 


MiCAH  vi.  1-8, 


E  have  now  reached  a  passage  from  which  all 


V  V  obscurities  of  date  and  authorship  ^  disappear 
before  the  transparence  and  splendour  of  its  contents. 

These  few  verses,"  says  a  great  critic,  **in  which 
Micah  sets  forth  the  true  essence  of  religion,  may  raise 
a  well-founded  title  to  be  counted  as  the  most  important 
in  the  prophetic  literature.  Like  almost  no  others,  they 
afford  us  an  insight  into  the  innermost  nature  of  the 
religion  of  Israel,  as  delivered  by  the  prophets." 

Usually  it  is  only  the  last  of  the  verses  upon  which 
the  admiration  of  the  reader  is  bestowed:  What  doth 
the  Lord  require  of  thee^  O  man^  but  to  do  justice  and 
love  mercy  and  walk  humbly  with  thy  God  ?  But  in  truth 
the  rest  of  the  passage  differeth  not  in  glory ;  the 
wonder  of  it  lies  no  more  in  its  peroration  than  in  its 
argument  as  a  whole. 

The  passage  is  cast  in  the  same  form  as  the  opening 
chapter  of  the  book — that  of  an  Argument  or  Debate 
between  the  God  of  Israel  and  His  people,  upon  the 
great  theatre  of  Nature.  The  heart  must  be  dull  that 
does  not  leap  to  the  Presences  before  which  the  trial 
is  enacted. 


'  See  above,  pp.  369  ft. 
419 


420 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


The  prophet  speaks  : — 

Hear  ye  now  that  which  Jehovah  is  saying; 

Arise,  contend  before  the  mountains^ 

And  let  the  hills  hear  thy  voice  I 

Hear,  O  mountains,  the  Lord^s  Argument, 

And  ye,  the  everlasting  I  foundations  of  earth  t 

This  is  not  mere  scenery.  In  all  the  moral  questions 
between  God  and  man,  the  prophets  feel  that  Nature 
is  involved.  Either  she  is  called  as  a  witness  to  the 
long  history  of  their  relations  to  each  other,  or  as 
sharing  God's  feeling  of  the  intolerableness  of  the 
evil  which  men  have  heaped  upon  her,  or  by  her 
droughts  and  floods  and  earthquakes  as  the  executioner 
of  their  doom.  It  is  in  the  first  of  these  capacities  that 
the  prophet  in  this  passage  appeals  to  the  mountains 
and  eternal  foundations  of  earth.  They  are  called,  not 
because  they  are  the  biggest  of  existences,  but  because 
they  are  the  most  full  of  memories  and  associations  with 
both  parties  to  the  Trial. 

The  main  idea  of  the  passage,  however,  is  the  Trial 
itself.  We  have  seen  more  than  once  that  the  forms 
of  religion  which  the  prophets  had  to  combat  were 
those  which  expressed  it  mechanically  in  the  form  of 
ritual  and  sacrifice,  and  those  which  expressed  it  in 
mere  enthusiasm  and  ecstasy.  Between  such  extremes 
the  prophets  insisted  that  religion  was  knowledge  and 
that  it  was  conduct — rational  intercourse  and  loving 
dut}^  between  God  and  man.  This  is  what  they  figure 
in  their  favourite  scene  of  a  Debate  which  is  now  before 
us. 

Jehovah  hath  a  Quarrel  with  His  People, 
And  with  Israel  He  cometh  to  argue. 

To  US,  accustomed  to  communion  with  the  Godhead, 


Micahvi.  1-8.]  REASONABLENESS  OF  TRUE  RELIGION  421 


as  with  a  Father,  this  may  seem  formal  and  legal. 
But  if  we  so  regard  it  we  do  it  an  injustice.  The  form 
sprang  by  revolt  against  mechanical  and  sensational 
ideas  of  religion.  It  emphasised  religion  as  rational 
and  moral,  and  at  once  preserved  the  reasonableness 
of  God  and  the  freedom  of  man.  God  spoke  with  the 
people  whom  He  had  educated  :  He  pled  with  them, 
listened  to  their  statements  and  questions,  and  produced 
His  own  evidences  and  reasons.  Religion,  such  a 
passage  as  this  asserts — religion  is  not  a  thing  of 
authority  nor  of  ceremonial  nor  of  mere  feeling,  but 
of  argument,  reasonable  presentation  and  debate. 
Reason  is  not  put  out  of  court :  man's  freedom  is 
respected ;  and  he  is  not  taken  by  surprise  through  his 
fears  or  his  feelings.  This  sublime  and  generous  con- 
ception of  religion,  which  we  owe  first  of  all  to  the 
prophets  in  their  contest  with  superstitious  and  slothful 
theories  of  religion  that  unhappily  survive  among  us, 
was  carried  to  its  climax  in  the  Old  Testament  by 
another  class  of  writers.  We  find  it  elaborated  with 
great  power  and  beauty  in  the  Books  of  Wisdom.  In 
these  the  Divine  Reason  has  emerged  from  the  legal 
forms  now  before  us,  and  has  become  the  Associate 
and  Friend  of  Man.  The  Prologue  to  the  Book  of 
Proverbs  tells  how  Wisdom,  fellow  of  God  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world,  descends  to  dwell  among  men. 
She  comes  forth  into  their  streets  and  markets,  she 
argues  and  pleads  there  with  an  urgency  which  is  equal 
to  the  urgency  of  temptation  itself  But  it  is  not  till 
the  earthly  ministry  of  the  Son  of  God,  His  arguments 
with  the  doctors.  His  parables  to  the  common  people, 
His  gentle  and  prolonged  education  of  His  disciples, 
that  we  see  the  reasonableness  of  religion  in  all  its 
fttixngth  and  beauty. 


422 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


In  that  free  court  of  reason  in  which  the  prophets 
saw  God  and  man  plead  together,  the  subjects  were 
such  as  became  them  both.  For  God  unfolds  no 
mysteries,  and  pleads  no  power,  but  the  debate  pro- 
ceeds upon  the  facts  and  evidences  of  life :  the  ap- 
pearance of  Character  in  history ;  whether  the  past  be 
not  full  of  the  efforts  of  Love  ;  whether  God  had  not,  as 
human  wilfulness  permitted  Him,  achieved  the  liberation 
and  progress  of  His  people. 

God  speaks : — 

My  people^  what  have  I  done  unto  thee  ? 
And  how  have  I  wearied  thee — answer  Me  t 
For  I  brought  thee  up  from  the  land  of  Misraim^ 
And  from  the  house  of  slavery  I  redeemed  thee. 
I  sent  before  thee  Moses ^  Aharon  and  Miriam, 
My  peopkj  remember  now  what  Balak  king  of 

Moab  counselled^ 
And  how  he  was  answered  by  Bald  am  ^  Beor's 

son — 

So  that  thou  mayest  know  the  righteous  deeds  of 
Jehovah} 

Always  do  the  prophets  go  back  to  Egypt  or  the 
wilderness.  There  God  made  the  people,  there  He 
redeemed  them.  In  lawbook  as  in  prophecy,  it  is  the 
fact  of  redemption  which  forms  the  main  ground  of 
His  appeal.  Redeemed  by  Him,  the  people  are  not 
their  own,  but  His.  Treated  with  that  wonderful  love 
and  patience,  like  patience  and  love  they  are  called  to 
bestow  upon  the  weak  and  miserable  beneath  them.* 


*  Omitted  from  the  above  is  the  strange  clause  frotn  Shittim  to 
Gilgal^  which  appears  to  be  a  gloss. 

'  See  the  passages  on  the  subject  in  Professor  Harper's  work  oo 
Deuteronomy  in  this  series. 


Micah  vi.  1-8.]  REASONABLENESS  OF  TRUE  REUGION  423 


One  of  the  greatest  interpreters  of  the  prophets  to  our 
own  age,  Frederick  Denison  Maurice,  has  said  upon 
this  passage :  We  do  not  know  God  till  we  recognise 
him  as  a  Deliverer;  we  do  not  understand  our  own 
work  in  the  world  till  we  believe  we  are  sent  into  it 
to  carry  out  His  designs  for  the  deliverance  of  ourselves 
and  the  race.  The  bondage  I  groan  under  is  a  bondage 
cf  the  will.  God  is  emphatically  the  Redeemer  of  the 
will.  It  is  in  that  character  He  reveals  Himself  to  us. 
We  could  not  think  of  God  at  all  as  the  God,  the  living 
God,  if  we  did  not  regard  Him  as  such  a  Redeemer. 
But  if  of  my  will,  then  of  all  wills  :  sooner  or  later  I 
am  convinced  He  will  be  manifested  as  the  Restorer, 
Regenerator — not  of  something  else,  but  of  this — of 
the  fallen  spirit  that  is  within  us." 

In  most  of  the  controversies  which  the  prophets 
open  between  God  and  man,  the  subject  on  the  side 
of  the  latter  is  his  sin.  But  that  is  not  so  here.  In 
the  controversy  which  opens  the  Book  of  Micah  the 
argument  falls  upon  the  transgressions  of  the  people, 
but  here  upon  their  sincere  though  mistaken  methods 
of  approaching  God.  There  God  deals  with  dull  con- 
sciences, but  here  with  darkened  and  imploring  hearts. 
In  that  case  we  had  rebels  forsaking  the  true  God  for 
idols,  but  here  are  earnest  seekers  after  God,  who  have 
lost  their  way  and  are  weary.  Accordingly,  as  indig- 
nation prevailed  there,  here  prevails  pity ;  and  though 
formally  this  be  a  controversy  under  the  same  legal  form 
as  before,  the  passage  breathes  tenderness  and  gentle- 
ness from  first  to  last.  By  this  as  well  as  by  the 
recollections  of  the  ancient  history  of  Israel  we  are 
reminded  of  the  style  of  Hosea.  But  there  is  no 
expostulation,  as  in  his  book,  with  the  people^s  con- 
tinued devotion  to  ritual.    All  that  is  past,  and  a  new 


424 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


temper  prevails.  Israel  have  at  last  come  to  feel  the 
vanity  of  the  exaggerated  zeal  with  which  Amos  pictures 
them  exceeding  the  legal  requirements  of  sacrifice ;  ^ 
and  with  a  despair,  sufficiently  evident  in  the  super- 
latives which  they  use,  they  confess  the  futility  and 
weariness  of  the  whole  system,  even  in  the  most  lavish 
and  impossible  forms  of  sacrifice.  What  then  remains 
for  them  to  do?  The  prophet  answers  with  the 
beautiful  words,  that  express  an  ideal  of  religion  to 
which  no  subsequent  century  has  ever  been  able  to  add 
either  grandeur  or  tenderness. 
The  people  speak : — 

Wherewithal  shall  I  come  before  Jehovah^ 
Shall  I  bow  myself  to  God  the  Most  High  ? 
Shall  I  come  before  Him  with  burnt-offerings^ 
With  calves  of  one  year  ? 

Will  Jehovah  be  pleased  with  thousands  of  rams^ 
With  myriads  of  rivers  oj  oil  ? 
Shall  I  give  my  firstborn  for  a  guilt-offering^ 
The  fruit  of  my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul  ? 

The  prophet  answers  : — 

He  hath  shown  thee,  O  man^  what  is  good; 
And  what  is  the  LORD  seeking  from  thee^ 
But  to  do  justice  and  love  mercy ^ 
And  humbly  ^  to  walk  with  thy  God ? 

'  See  above,  p.  i6i. 

'  See  above,  p.  370,  on  the  futility  of  the  argument  which  because 
ol  this  line  would  put  the  whole  passage  in  Manasseh's  reign. 

'  This  word  ^ViX\  is  only  once  used  again,  in  Prov.  xi.  2,  in 
another  grammatical  form,  where  also  it  might  mean  humbly.  But 
the  root-meaning  is  evidently  in  secret^  or  secretly  (cf.  the  Aram. 
y^V,  to  be  hidden;  T'^^V,  one  who  lives  noiselessly,  humble,  pious; 
in  the  feminine  of  a  bride  who  is  modest)  ;  and  it  is  uncertain 
whether  we  should  not  take  that  sense  here. 


Micahvi.  1-8.]  REASONABLENESS  OF  TRUE  RELIGION  425 


This  is  the  greatest  saying  of  the  Old  Testament ; 
and  there  is  only  one  other  in  the  New  which  excels 
it:— 

Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden^ 
and  I  will  give  you  rest. 

Take  My  yoke  upon  yoUy  and  learn  of  Me;  for  I  am 
meek  and  lowly  in  heart:  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto 
your  souls. 

For  My  yoke  is  easy,  and  My  burden  is  light. 


CHAPTER  XXX 


THE  SIN  OF  THE  SCANT  MEASURE 
MiCAH  vL  9 — vii.  6. 

THE  state  of  the  text  of  Micah  vi.  9 — vii.  6  is  as 
confused  as  the  condition  of  society  which  it 
describes  :  it  is  difficult  to  get  reason,  and  impossible 
to  get  rhyme,  out  of  the  separate  clauses.  We  had 
best  give  it  as  it  stands,  and  afterwards  state  the 
substance  of  its  doctrine,  which,  in  spite  of  the  obscurity 
of  details,  is,  as  so  often  happens  in  similar  cases,  per- 
fectly clear  and  forcible.  The  passage  consists  of  two 
portions,  which  may  not  originally  have  belonged  to 
each  other,  but  which  seem  to  reflect  the  same  dis- 
order of  civic  life,  with  the  judgment  that  impends  upon 
it.*  In  the  first  of  them,  vi.  9-16,  the  prophet  calls 
for  attention  to  the  voice  of  God,  which  describes  the 
fraudulent  life  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  evils  He  is  bringing 
on  her.  In  the  second,  vii.  1-6,  Jerusalem  bemoans  her 
corrupt  society ;  but  perhaps  we  hear  her  voice  only 
in  ver.  I,  and  thereafter  the  prophet's. 
The  prophet  speaks  : — 

Hark  I  Jehovah  crieth  to  the  city  t 
(^Tis  salvation  to  fear  Thy  Name  f)^ 

'  See  above,  pp.  370  flf. 

*  Probably  a  later  parenthesis.    The  word  n^2^in  is  one  which, 
unusual  in  the  prophets,  the  Wisdom  literature  has  made  its  own 
Prov.  ii,  7,  xviii.  I  ;  Job  v.  12,  etc.    For  Thy  LXX.  read  Hts, 

426 


Micah  vi.  9-vii.  6.]  THE  SIN  OF  THE  SCANT  MEASURE  427 


Hear  ye^  O  tribe  and  council  of  the  city  f  (?)^ 

God  speaks : — 

...  in  the  house  of  the  wicked  treasures  of  wicked- 
nesSf 

And  the  scant  measure  accursed  ! 

Can  she  be  pure  with  the  evil  balances^ 

And  with  the  bag  of  false  weights^ 

Whose  rich  men  are  full  of  violence^ 

And  her  citizens  speak  falsehood^ 

And  their  tongue  is  deceit  in  their  mouth  ? 

But  I  on  My  part  have  begun  to  plague  thee^ 

To  lay  thee  in  ruin  because  of  thy  sins. 

Thou  eatest  and  art  not  filled^ 

But  thy  famine^  is  in  the  very  midst  of  thee  t 

*  Translation  of  LXX  emended  by  Wellhaiisen  so  as  to  read 
"l^yn  lyiQ,  the  "l"*!^  being  obtained  by  taking  and  transferring  the  ^11^ 
of  the  next  verse,  and  relieving  that  verse  of  an  unusual  formation, 
viz.        before  the  interrogative  tJ^NH.    But  for  an  instance  of 
preceding  an  interrogative  see  Gen.  xix.  12. 

*  The  text  of  the  two  preceding  verses,  which  is  acknowledged  to 
be  corrupt,  nxust  be  corrected  by  the  undoubted  3rd  feminine  suffix 
in  this  one — "  her  rich  men."  Throughout  the  reference  must  be  to 
the  city.  We  ought  therefore  to  change  ^DT^5^  of  ver.  1 1  into  nDTHH, 
which  agrees  with  the  LXX.  Si/catw^rycjerat.  Ver.  10  is  more  uncertain, 
but  for  the  same  reason  that  "  the  city  "  is  referred  to  throughout 
w.  9-12,  it  is  possible  that  it  is  the  nominative  to  HOiyt ;  translate 
"cursed  with  the  short  measure."  Again  for  ni*lVt^  LXX.  read 
nnV^^  ITJ^IXj  to  which  also  the  city  would  be  nominative.  And  this 
suggests  the  query  whether  in  the  letters  n^H  C^NH,  that  make  little 
sense  as  they  stand  in  the  Massoretic  Text,  there  was  not  originally 
another  feminine  participle.  The  recommendation  of  a  transformation 
of  this  kind  is  that  it  removes  the  abruptness  of  the  appearance  of 
the  3rd  feminine  suffix  in  ver.  12. 

*  The  word  is  found  only  here.  The  stem  K^H^  is  no  doubt  the 
same  as  the  Arabic  verb  wahash,  which  in  Form  V.  means  "  Inani 
ventre  fuit  prae  fame ;  vacuum  reliquit  stomachum "  (Freytag).  In 
modern  colloquial  Arabic  wahsha  means  a  'Monging  for  an  absent 
friend.* 


428 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


And  but  try  to  remove^  thou  canst  not  bring  off; 

And  what  thou  bringest  off^  I  give  to  the  sword. 

Thou  sowestf  but  never  reapest; 

Treadest  olives^  but  never  anointest  with  oil^ 

And  mustf  but  not  to  drink  wine  ! 

So  thou  keepest  the  statutes  of  Omri^ 

And  the  habits  of  the  house  of  Ahab^ 

And  walk  est  in  their  principles^ 

Only  that  I  may  give  thee  to  ruin^ 

And  her  inhabitants  for  sport — 

Yea^  the  reproach  of  the  Gentiles^  shall  ye  heart 


Jerusalem  speaks : — 

Woe^  woe  is  me^  for  I  ant  become  like  sweepings  of 
harvest^ 

Like  gleanings  of  the  vintage — 
Not  a  cluster  to  eat^  not  a  fig  that  my  soul  lusteth 
after. 

Perished  are  the  leal  from  the  land^ 

Of  the  upright  among  men  there  is  none: 

All  of  them  are  lurking  for  blood; 

Every  man  takes  his  brother  in  a  net. 

Their  hands  are  on  evil  to  do  it  thoroughly^ 

The  prince  makes  requisition^ 

The  judge  judgeth  for  payment^ 

And  the  great  man  he  speaketh  his  lust/ 

So  together  they  weave  it  out. 

The  best  of  them  is  but  a  thorn  thicket^ 


'  Jussive.  The  objects  removed  can  hardly  be  goods,  as  Hitzig 
and  others  infer;  for  it  is  to  tht  sword  they  afterwards  fall  Thej 
must  be  persons. 

'  LXX.  Zimri,  *  Uncertain. 

•  So  LXX.  ;  but  Heb.  My  peopU.  •  Cf.  Prov.  xv.  19^ 


Micah  vi.  9-vii.  6.]  THE  SIN  OF  THE  SCANT  MEASURE  429 


The  most  upright  worse  than  a  prickly  hedge} 
The  day  that  thy  sentinels  saw,  thy  visitation^  draweth 
on; 

Now  is  their  havoc  ^  come  I 
Trust  not  any  friend  !    Rely  on  no  confidant! 
From  her  that  lies  in  thy  bosom  guard  the  gates  oj 
thy  mouth. 

For  son  insulteth  father^  daughter  is  risen  against 
her  mother^  daughter-in-law  against  her  mother- 
in-law; 

And  the  enemies  of  a  man  are  the  men  oJ  his  house. 

Micah,  though  the  prophet  of  the  country  and  stern 
critic  of  its  Hfe,  characterised  Jerusalem  herself  as  the 
centre  of  the  nation's  sins.  He  did  not  refer  to  idolatry 
alone,  but  also  to  the  irreligion  of  the  politicians,  and 
the  cruel  injustice  of  the  rich  in  the  capital.  The 
poison  which  weakened  the  nation's  blood  had  found 
its  entrance  to  their  veins  at  the  very  heart.  There 
had  the  evil  gathered  which  was  shaking  the  state  to 
a  rapid  dissolution. 

This  section  of  the  Book  of  Micah,  whether  it  be  by 
that  prophet  or  not,  describes  no  features  of  Jerusalem's 
life  which  were  not  present  in  the  eighth  century ; 
and  it  may  be  considered  as  the  more  detailed  picture 
of  the  evils  he  summarily  denounced.  It  is  one 
of  the  most  poignant  criticisms  of  a  commercial  com- 
munity which  have  ever  appeared  in  literature.  In 

*  Roorda,  by  rearranging  letters  and  clauses  (some  of  them  after 
LXX.),  and  by  changing  points,  gets  a  reading  which  may  be  ren- 
dered :  For  evil  are  their  hands  I  To  do  good  the  prince  deynandeth 
a  bribe^  and  the  judge,  for  the  reward  of  the  great,  spcaketh  what  he 
desireth.  And  they  entangle  the  good  mort  than  thorns,  and  Uu 
righteous  more  than  a  thorn  hedge, 

«  Cf.  Isa.  xxii.  5, 


430 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


equal  relief  we  see  the  meanest  instruments  and  the 
most  prominent  agents  of  covetousness  and  cruelty — 
the  scant  measure,  the  false  weights,  the  unscrupulous 
prince  and  the  venal  judge.  And  although  there  are 
some  sins  denounced  which  are  impossible  in  our 
civilisation,  yet  falsehood,  squalid  fraud,  pitilessness 
of  the  everlasting  struggle  for  life  are  exposed  exactly 
as  we  see  them  about  us  to-day.  Through  the 
prophet's  ancient  and  often  obscure  eloquence  we  feel 
just  those  shocks  and  sharp  edges  which  still  break 
everywhere  through  our  Christian  civilisation.  Let 
us  remember,  too,  that  the  community  addressed  by 
the  prophet  was,  like  our  own,  professedly  religious. 

The  most  widespread  sin  with  which  the  prophet 
charges  Jerusalem  in  these  days  of  her  commercial 
?ictivity  is  falsehood :  Her  inhabitants  speak  lies^  and 
their  tongue  is  deceit  in  their  mouth.  In  Mr.  Lecky's 
History  of  European  Morals  we  find  the  opinion  that 
the  one  respect  in  which  the  growth  of  industrial  Hfe 
has  exercised  a  favourable  influence  on  morals  has 
been  in  the  promotion  of  truth."  The  tribute  is  just, 
but  there  is  another  side  to  it  The  exigencies  of 
commerce  and  industry  are  fatal  to  most  of  the  con- 
ventional pretences,  insincerities  and  flatteries,  which 
tend  to  grow  up  in  all  kinds  of  society.  In  commercial 
hfe,  more  perhaps  than  in  any  other,  a  man  is  taken,  and 
has  to  be  taken,  in  his  inherent  worth.  Business,  the 
^  life  which  is  called  par  excellence  Busy-ness,  wears 
off  every  mask,  all  false  veneer  and  unction,  and 
leaves  no  time  for  the  cant  and  parade  which  are  so 
prone  to  increase  in  all  other  professions.  Moreover 
the  soul  of  commerce  is  credit.  Men  have  to  show 
that  they  can  be  trusted  before  other  men  will  traffic 
with  them,  at  least  upon  that  large  and  lavish  scale 


Micah  vL  9-vil  6.]  THE  SIN  OF  THE  SCANT  MEASURE     43 1 


on  which  alone  the  great  undertakings  of  commerce 
can  be  conducted.  When  we  look  back  upon  the 
history  of  trade  and  industry,  and  see  how  they  have 
created  an  atmosphere  in  which  men  must  ultimately 
seem  what  they  really  are ;  how  they  have  of  their 
needs  replaced  the  jealousies,  subterfuges,  intrigues, 
which  were  once  deemed  indispensable  to  the  relations 
of  men  of  different  peoples,  by  large  international 
credit  and  trust ;  how  they  break  through  the  false 
conventions  that  divide  class  from  class,  we  must 
do  homage  to  them,  as  among  the  greatest  instruments 
of  the  truth  which  maketh  free. 

But  to  all  this  there  is  another  side.  If  commerce 
has  exploded  so  much  conventional  insincerity,  it  has 
developed  a  species  of  the  genus  which  is  quite  its 
own.  In  our  days  nothing  can  lie  like  an  adver- 
tisement. The  saying  the  tricks  of  the  trade  "  has 
become  proverbial.  Every  one  knows  that  the  awful 
strain  and  harassing  of  commercial  life  is  largely  due 
to  the  very  amount  of  falseness  that  exists.  The  haste 
to  be  rich,  the  pitiless  rivalry  and  competition,  have 
developed  a  carelessness  of  the  rights  of  others  to  the 
truth  from  ourselves,  with  a  capacity  for  subterfuge 
and  intrigue,  which  reminds  one  of  nothing  so  much 
as  that  state  of  barbarian  war  out  of  which  it  was  the 
ancient  glory  of  commerce  to  have  assisted  mankind 
to  rise.  Are  the  prophet^s  words  about  Jerusalem  too 
strong  for  large  portions  of  our  own  commercial 
communities  ?  Men  who  know  these  best  will  not 
say  that  they  are.  But  let  us  cherish  rather  the 
powers  of  commerce  which  make  for  truth.  Let  us 
tell  men  who  engage  in  trade  that  there  are  none 
for  whom  it  is  more  easy  to  be  clean  and  straight , 
that  lies,  whether  of  action  or  of  speech,  only  in- 


43« 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


crease  the  mental  expense  and  the  moral  strain  of  life ; 
and  that  the  health,  the  capacity,  the  foresight,  the 
opportunities  of  a  great  merchant  depend  ultimately 
on  his  resolve  to  be  true  and  on  the  courage  with  which 
he  sticks  to  the  truth. 

One  habit  of  falseness  on  which  the  prophet  dwells 
is  the  use  of  unjust  scales  and  short  measures.  The 
stores  or  fortunes  of  his  day  are  stores  of  wickedness^ 
because  they  have  been  accumulated  by  the  use  of  the 
lean  ephah^  the  balances  of  wrong  and  the  bag  of  false 
weights.    These  are  evils  more  common  in  the  East 
than  with  us :  modern  government  makes  them  almost 
impossible.    But,  all  the  same,  ours  is  the  sin  of  the 
scant  measure,  and  the  more  so  in  proportion  to  the 
greater  speed  and  rivalry  of  our  commercial  life.  The 
prophet's  name  for  it,  measure  of  leanness,  of  con- 
sumption or  shrinkage,  is  a  proper  symbol  of  all  those 
duties  and  offices  of  man  to  man,  the  full  and  generous 
discharge  of  which  is  diminished  by  the  haste  and  the 
grudge  of  a  prevalent   selfishness.     The   speed  of 
modern  life  tends  to  shorten  the  time  expended  on 
every  piece  of  work,  and  to  turn  it  out  untempered 
and  incomplete.    The  struggle  for  life  in  commerce^ 
the  organised  rivalry  between  labour  and  capital,  not 
only  puts  every  man  on  his  guard  against  giving  anj 
other  more  than  his  due,  but  tempts  him  to  use  everj 
opportunity  to  scamp  and  curtail  his  own  service  anc 
output.    You  will  hear  men  defend  this  parsimony  as 
if  it  were  a  law.    They  say  that  business  is  impossible 
without  the  temper  which  they  call     sharpness "  or 
the   habit  which  they  call     cutting  it  fine."  But 
such  character  and  conduct  are  the  very  decay  ol 
society.     The  shrinkage  of  the  units  must  always 
and  everywhere  mean  the  disintegration  of  the  mass. 


Micah  vi  9.vii.  6.]  THE  SIN  OF  THE  SCANT  MEAS URE  433 


A  society  whose  members  strive  to  keep  within  their 
duties  is  a  society  which  cannot  continue  to  cohere. 
Selfishness  may  be  firmness,  but  it  is  the  firmness  of 
frost,  the  rigour  of  death.  Only  the  unselfish  excess 
of  duty,  only  the  generous  loyalty  to  others,  give  to 
society  the  compactness  and  indissolubleness  of  life. 
Who  is  responsible  for  the  enmity  of  classes,  and  the 
distrust  which  exists  between  capital  and  labour  ? 
It  is  the  workman  whose  one  aim  is  to  secure  the 
largest  amount  of  wages  for  the  smallest  amount  of 
work,  and  who  will,  in  his  blind  pursuit  of  that, 
wreck  the  whole  trade  of  a  town  or  a  district ;  it  is 
the  employer  who  believes  he  has  no  duties  to  his 
men  beyond  paying  them  for  their  work  the  least  that 
he  can  induce  them  to  take ;  it  is  the  customer  who 
only  and  ever  looks  to  the  cheapness  of  an  article — 
procurer  in  that  prostitution  of  talent  to  the  work  of 
scamping  which  is  fast  killing  art,  and  joy  and  all 
pity  for  the  bodies  and  souls  of  our  brothers.  These 
are  the  true  anarchists  and  breakers-up  of  society. 
On  their  methods  social  coherence  and  harmony  are 
impossible.  Life  itself  is  impossible.  No  organism 
can  thrive  whose  various  limbs  are  ever  shrinking  in 
upon  themselves.  There  is  no  life  except  by  living 
to  others. 

But  the  prophet  covers  the  whole  evil  when  he  says 
that  the  pious  are  perished  out  of  the  land.  Pious  is  a 
translation  of  despair.  The  original  means  the  man 
distinguished  by  "  hesedh,**  that  word  which  we  have  on 
several  occasions  translated  leal  love^  because  it  implies 
not  only  an  affection  but  loyalty  to  a  relation.  And, 
as  the  use  of  the  word  frequently  reminds  us,  hesedh  " 
is  love  and  loyalty  both  to  God  and  to  our  fellow-men. 
We  need  not  dissociate  these  :   they  are  one.  But 

VOL.  t  28 


434  THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 

here  it  is  the  human  direction  in  which  the  word 
looks.  It  means  a  character  which  fulfils  all  the  rela- 
tions of  society  with  the  fidelity,  generosity  and 
grace,  which  are  the  proper  affections  of  man  to  man. 
Such  a  character,  says  the  prophet,  is  perished  from  the 
land.  Every  man  now  lives  for  himself,  and  as  a 
consequence  preys  upon  his  brother.  They  all  lie  in 
wait  for  blood ;  they  hunt  every  man  his  brother  with  a 
net.  This  is  not  murder  which  the  prophet  describes : 
it  is  the  reckless,  pitiless  competition  of  the  new 
conditions  of  fife  developed  in  Judah  by  the  long  peace 
and  commerce  of  the  eighth  century.  And  he  carries 
this  selfishness  into  a  very  striking  figure  in  ver.  4: 
The  best  of  them  is  as  a  thorn  thicket^  the  most  upright 
worse  than  a  prickly  hedge.  He  realises  exactly  what 
We  mean  by  sharpness  and  sharp-dealing :  bristling 
self-interest,  all  points  ;  splendid  in  its  own  defence, 
but  barren  of  fruit,  and  without  nest  or  covert  for  any 
life. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 


OUR  MOTHER  OF  SORROWS 
MicAH  vii.  7-2a 

AFTER  so  stern  a  charge,  so  condign  a  sentence, 
confession  is  natural,  and,  with  prayer  for  for- 
giveness and  praise  to  the  mercy  of  God,  it  fitly  closes 
the  whole  book.  As  we  have  seen,^  the  passage  is  a 
cento  of  several  fragments,  from  periods  far  apart  in  the 
history  of  Israel.  One  historical  allusion  suits  best  the. 
age  of  the  Syrian  wars  ;  another  can  only  refer  to 
the  day  of  Jerusalem's  ruin.  In  spirit  and  language 
the  Confessions  resemble  the  prayers  of  the  Exile.  The 
Doxology  has  echoes  of  several  Scriptures.* 

But  from  these  fragments,  it  may  be  of  many  cen- 
turies, there  rises  clear  the  One  Essential  Figure  :  Israel, 
all  her  secular  woes  upon  her;  our  Mother  of  Sorrows, 
at  whose  knees  we  learned  our  first  prayers  of  con- 
fession and  penitence.  Other  nations  have  been  our 
teachers  in  art  and  wisdom  and  government.  But  she 
is  our  mistress  in  pain  and  in  patience,  teaching  men 
with  what  conscience  they  should  bear  the  chastening 
of  the  Almighty,  with  what  hope  and  humility  they 
should  wait  for  their  God.  Surely  not  less  lovable, 
but  only  more  human,  that  her  pale  cheeks  flush  for 

'  Above,  pp.  372  ff. 

'  Cf.  with  it  Exod.  xxxiv.  6,  7  (J);  Jer.  iii.  5,  1.  20;  Isa.  Ivit  16; 
Psalms  ciii.  9,  cv.  9,  10. 

435 


43« 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


a  moment  with  the  hate  of  the  enemy  and  the  assurance 
of  revenge.  Her  passion  is  soon  gone,  for  she  feels 
her  guilt  to  be  greater ;  and,  seeking  forgiveness,  her 
last  word  is  what  man's  must  ever  be,  praise  to  the 
grace  and  mercy  of  God. 
Israel  speaks : — 

But  I  will  look  for  the  LORD, 

I  will  wait  for  the  God  of  my  salvation  : 

My  God  will  hear  me  ! 

Rejoice  noty  O  mine  enemy ^  at  me  : 

If  I  be  fallen y  I  rise  ; 

If  I  sit  in  the  darkness j  the  LORD  is  a  light  to  me^ 

The  anger  of  the  LORD  will  I  bear — 

For  I  have  sinned  against  Him — 

Until  that  He  take  up  my  quarrel. 

And  execute  my  right. 

He  will  carry  me  forth  to  the  light; 

I  will  look  on  His  righteousness  : 

So  shall  mine  enemy  see,  and  shame  cover  her. 

She  that  saith  unto  me^  Where  is  Jehovah  thy  God  ? — 

Mine  eyes  shall  see  her, 

Now  is  she  for  trampling,  like  mire  in  the  streets  I 

The  prophet^  responds: — 

A  day  for  the  building  of  thy  walls  shall  that  day  be  I 
Broad  shall  tliy  border  be  ^  on  that  day  I 

*  It  was  a  woman  who  spoke  before,  the  People  or  the  City.  But 
the  second  personal  pronouns  to  which  this  reply  of  the  prophet  is 
addressed  are  all  masculine.  Notice  the  same  change  in  vi.  9-16 
(above  p  427). 

*  r'n"pn"l\  Ewald  :  "  distant  the  date."  Notice  the  assonance.  It 
explains  the  use  of  the  unusual  word  for  border.  LXX.  thy  borde*^ 
I  he  LXX.  also  takes  into  ver,  II       above)  the  NIH  DV  of  ver.  12. 


Micah  viL  7-20.]  OUR  MOTHER  OF  SORROWS 


437 


 *  and  shall  come  to  thee 

From  Assyria  unto  Egypt^  and  from  Egypt  to  the 
River^ 

And  to  Sea  from  Sea^  and  Mountain  from  Moun^ 
tain  ; ' 

Though^  the  land  be  waste  on  account  of  her  in-- 

habitants^ 
Because  of  the  fruit  of  their  doings. 

An  Ancient  Prayer  : — 

Shepherd  Thy  people  with  Thy  staffs 
The  sheep  of  Thy  heritage  dwelling  solitanly.  •  • 
May  they  pasture  in  Bashan  and  Gilead  as  tn  days 
of  old! 

As  in  the  days  when  Thou  wentest  forth  from  thi 

land  of  Misraimj  give  us  wonders  to  see  I 
Nations  shall  see  and  despair  of  all  their  might; 
Their  hands  to  their  mouths  shall  they  put^ 
Their  ears  shall  be  deafened. 
They  shall  lick  the  dust  like  serpents; 
Like  worms  of  the  ground  from  their  fastnesses^ 
To  Jehovah  our  God  they  shall  come  trembling^ 
And  in  fear  before  Thee  I 


*  Something  has  probably  been  lost  here. 
«  For  nnn  read  1.10. 

*  It  is  difficult  to  get  sense  when  translating  the  conjunction  in  anj 
other  way.    But  these  two  lines  may  belong  to  the  following. 

*  The  words  omitted  above  are  literally  jungle  in  the  midst  6>} 
gardenland  or  Carmel.  Plausible  as  it  would  be  to  take  the  proper 
name  Carmel  here  along  with  Bashan  and  Gilead  (see  Hist.  Geog,^  338)t 
the  connection  prefers  the  common  noun  garden  or  gardenland : 
translate  "  dwelling  alone  like  a  bit  of  jungle  in  the  midst  of  cultivated 
land."  Perhaps  the  clause  needs  rearrangement ;  with 
a  verb  to  introduce  it.  Yet  compare  "1^.,  *  Kings  xix.  23 ; 
Isa.  XXX vii.  24, 


438 


THE  TWELVE  PROPHETS 


A  Doxology  : — 

Who  is  a  God  like  to  Thee  ?    Forgiving  iniquity, 
And  passing  by  transgression,  to  the  remnant  oj 

His  heritage; 
He  keepeth  not  hold  of  His  anger  for  ever. 
But  One  who  delighteth  in  mercy  is  He; 
He  will  come  back.  He  will  pity  us, 
He  will  tread  under  foot  our  iniquities — 
Yea,  Thou  wilt  cast  to  the  depths  of  the  sea  every  one 

of  our  sins. 

Thou  wilt  show  faithfulness  to  Jacob,  leal  love  to 
Abraham, 

As  Thou  hast  sworn  to  our  fathers  from  tlu  days 
of  yore. 


INDEX  OF  PASSAGES  AND  TEXTS 


A  Single  text  will  always  be  found  treated  in  the  exposition  of  the  passage 
to  which  it  belongs.  Only  the  other  important  references  to  it  are  given  in 
this  index.  In  the  second  of  the  columns  Roman  numerals  indicate  the 
chapters^  Arabic  numerals  the  pages. 


Amos 

viii.  9 

.      .      .  66,95 

.  62 

ix.  1-6  . 

•      •  64 ;  X.,  Sec.  2 

i.  I 

,        61,  67f.,  69«. 

ix.  I 

.  Ill,  151 

i.3 

•      .       81, 93, 98 

ix.  5,  6  . 

201  ff. 

i.  3-"-  • 

.      .      .  VII. 

ix.  7-15  . 

64 ;  X.,  Sec.  3 

HOSEA 

iii.-vi.  • 

62ff. 

i.  I,  Title 

.    215  ff.  I 

iii.-iv.  3  . 

.    62,  63,  VIII. 

i.-iii.  211, 

212 ff.;  XIV.;  XXIII. 

iii.  3-8  . 

81  flf.,  89  ff.,  196 

i.  7  . 

.  213W.  I 

iii.  7 

.  198 

ii.  1-3  • 

.   213,  249  n.  2 

iv.4.13  . 

•  IX.,  Sec  I ;  199  f. 

ii.  8 

.  341 

iv.  II 

.  68 

ii.  9 

•  335 

iv.  12  • 

.  197 

ii.  10 

.      .      .      .  328 

iv.  13 

.      .      164,  201  ff. 

iii.  I 

.  214 

V.  . 

63 ;  IX.,  Sec.  2 

iii.  5 

.  214 

V,  8.  9  . 

.       .       166,  201  ff. 

iv.-xiv.  , 

.    215  ff;  XV. 

V.  26,  27  • 

108,  170  ff.,  204 

iv.-vii.  7  , 

223;  XVI. 

vL  . 

63  ;  IX.,  Sec.  3 

iv.  . 

.    XVI.,  Sec.  I 

vi.  9,  10  • 

IX.,  Sec.  4 

iv.  I 

.  323 

vL  12 

.  198 

iv.  3  « 

.  320 

vii.-ix.  • 

.      .      .  63f. 

iv.4 

•       •       .  221  n.  4 

vii.-viii.  4 

.  70;  I.,  Sec.  3 

iv.  4-9  . 

.  324 

iv.  6 

.   320,  326,  330 

vii.  12  • 

28  f. 

iv.  9 

.  335 

vii.  14,  IS 

.    27,  74,  76  ff 

iv.  12-14 

241,  282,  323;  XXIII. 

viii.  4-ix. 

.      .      .    64;  X. 

iv.  15 

.  224 

viii.  4-14 

.  X.,  Sec.  I 

iv.  17 

•  343 

viii.  8 

.       .      68,  95,  198 

V.  1-14  . 

.  XVI..  Sec.  2 

439 


440  INDEX  OF  PASSAGES  AND  TEXTS 


V.  5 

225,  337  f. 

V.  lO.  12-Id. 

•      •       .       .  225 

V.  15-vii.  2 

.  XVI.,  Sec.  3 

V,  14-vi.  I 

•      •      •      .  222 

vi.  1-4  • 

•      •      •      •  344 

vi.  5 

,      •  221  3 

vi.  8.  0  • 

•      •      •      .  216 

vi.  il-vii.  I 

«...  222 

vii.  3-7 

.    XVI.,  Sec.  4 

vii.  8-x.  . 

XVII 

vii.  8-viii.  3 

.   XVII.,  Sec.  I 

vii.  9-1 1 

•      •      •  323,  337 

vii.  16  • 

•      •      •   335  ^ 

viii.  4-13 

.  XVII.,  Sec.  2 

viii.  4  • 

.  221  n.  A 

viii.  5  • 

•       •       •  • 

viii.  10  • 

.    221  ft.  6 

viii.  13  • 

,        «        .   221  H.  7 

viii.  14  • 

•        •        .        .  224 

ix.*i-9  • 

.  XVII.,  Sec.  3 

ix.  I  • 

•      •      .       .  340 

ix.  2  • 

•      •      .  221  n,  6 

ix.  7 

.       ,     28,  222  H.  I 

ix.  8,9  . 

.  222  n.  I 

ix.  10-17 

XVII.,  Sec.  4  ;  XXIII. 

ix.  17 

.  222  «.  2 

X.  . 

.  XVII.,  Sec.  5 

X.  I,  2  . 

.    38«.  4 

X.  5     221  «.  6  (read  x.  5) ;  341,  342 

X.9 

.  327  w.  10 

X.  II,  12 

225,  344  f. 

X.  13  . 

•      •      .  221 6 

X.  14 

.  217  «.  5 

X.  15 

•      •       .  221 M.  6 

xi. 

.  XVIII. 

xi.  I  • 

.  327 

xi.  2-4  • 

•          •        221  HH  1-4 

xi.  5 

.    221  ft.  4,  336  ft.  2 

xi.  8 

.    XXIII.;  351 

xii.-xiv.  I 

XIX. 

xii.  .  • 

.    XIX,  Sec.  I 

xiL  I  • 

•      •       .      .  225 

lii.  2 

,      ,       .  221  ft.  6 

xii.  3  • 

•        •  22< 

xii.  4,  5  • 

•        •  ^26 

xii.  7 

•  • 

•      •  345 

xii.  8 

xii.  13,  14 

* 

•  327 

xiii.-xiv.  I 

XIX.,  Sec.  1 

xiii.  6  • 

•  • 

.  327,  330 

xiii.  7  • 

•  • 

330  f. 

XIV.  2—10  • 

•  • 

•  • 

.  335  I 

xiv.  6-9  • 

MiCAH 

.      .  233 

i.  I,  Title 

•  • 

.      .  35« 

i.-iii.  • 

358, 360, 362  S. 

i.     •  • 

362  f. ;  XXV. 

ii.,  iiL  • 

.    363,364;  XXVI 

ii.  12,  13  . 

359,  360,  362,  393  If.  I 

iii.  14  • 

.  363  ft.  2 

iv..  v.  • 

357,  358,  360,  365  ff. 

iv.  1-7 

•  • 

.  XXVII. 

iv.  I-^  • 

•  • 

.  358.  365 

iv.  5 

•  • 

.  367 

iv.  6-8  , 

•  • 

.  358,367 

iv.  8-13  • 

.      .  367 

iv.  8-v.  • 

•  • 

.  XXVIII. 

iv.  o-i^  . 

•  • 

.  358,359 

iv.  II-13 

•  • 

.      .  358 

iv.  1 4- v.  8 

.      .  368 

v.  8 

.  359 

V.  Q-14  . 

.      .  368 

vi.,  vii. 

357,  358,  359,  360,  369 

vi.  1-8  . 

369;  XXIX. 

vi.  9- vii.  6 

.  XXX. 

vi.  9-16  . 

.  370 

vii,  1-6  , 

.  359,371 

vii.  7-20  . 

359,  372flF.;  XXXI. 

vii.  II 

.  373 

vii.  14-17 

.  373 

vii.  18-20 

.      .  373 

